The farmers of Lalmonirhat have been dipping jute plants in the rivers and other water bodies, causing the environment pollution in the district. Due to inadequate rainfall, pollution of rivers and other water bodies fishes and other water creatures are in danger.
“Ribbon retting,” a new method for rotting plants with less water was supposed to gain popularity in Lalmonirhat. The method was introduced among local farmers in a very limited scale some years ago, but became ineffective due to lack promotion.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) took an initiative to re-introduce the system this year but lack of training and response from the farmers dampened the effort.
Agriculture officials said, generally farmers remove fibre after rotting jute plants in water for two to three weeks, but “ribbon retting” system takes less time and requires less water. Ribbon retting needs polythene and a big hole in the soil. After separating raw fibre from jute stalk, the fibre can be kept in the water hole.
“Only ten farmers were imparted training in each upazila. Local farmers were provided with Tk300 each for purchasing polythene and digging hole to re-introduce the system. It may take time to adopt the system in a large scale,” said Abdul Mazid, deputy director of DAE in Lalmonirhat.
This year a total of 9,260 hectares of land were under the jute cultivation at five upazilas in Lalmonirhat, official said.
“We are not familiar with the system. A few farmers were informed about the new system but they did not show interest,” Abdul Hossain, a farmer of Mostofi village, Lalmonirhat sadar upazila said.
Momen Uddin Shaikh of Haziganj village, Aditmari upazila, said he had heard about ribbon rotting system but he does not know how to apply the method.
Krishna Chandra Pal, another farmer of Teesta village, Lalmonirhat sadar upazila said, “Ribbon retting method is very easy but we had only a day’s training which is insufficient.”
It was found that water of a few rivers, canals, ponds and other water bodies has turned black and stinky. Thousands of people catch fish in those polluted water bodies that contains dead or diseased fish.
The Aditmari Upazila Fishery Officer Hasmot Ali said due to inadequate rainfall, jute retting is hampering the fish production, their movement and breeding system.
