At least 60 thousand of Magura’s jute growers have been deprived from the joys of Eid as they could not extract the fiber from jute due to a lack of rainfall.
Farmers said jute plants that had been cut off for the last couple of weeks were still kept on lands and getting dried because they could not be moved to a place for decomposition due to the shortage of water. Abu Ishak, a jute grower from the village of Norihati in Magura’s sadar upazilla, said he had plans to do his Eid shopping after he had sold all his jute but they never came to be as he is still waiting for rainwater to rot the green jute.
Another famer Roish Mollah, from the village of Parla, said he had cultivated jute in 5 bighas of land, which is approximately 0.67 hectares of land, where he had invested over Tk25,000, and was expecting a handsome profit from his investment. Roish added that he did not do any Eid shopping as he could not get the green jute to rot due to the shortage of water.
Rotting green jute on time is a precondition for extracting quality fiber, but due to poor rainfall water bodies are drying up and as a result farmers are apprehending massive losses. Mokhlesur Rahman, deputy director of Agriculture Extension Department of Magura, said a total of 30,550 hectares of land was allocated for the cultivation of jute in the district this year with an output target of 385,000 thousand bails of jute.
The target has been achieved but he has been apprehending loses as farmers have been facing severe problems in getting green jute to rot due to the shortage of water.