A hailstorm coupled with rain recently damaged different crops in Shibchar upazila of Madaripur district.
Farmers said the hailstorm that lashed in Duttapara, Shiruail, Sanyasirchar, Shibchar Sadar, Baheratal and other places damaged standing rabi crops and mango and litchi groves.
GSM Gafur, deputy director of the district Department of Agricultural Extension, confirmed the news.
In Faridpur, after failing to get fair price for onions in the previous season, farmers in different upazilas of the district dreaming of making up their loss this season thanks to bumper onion yield, reports UNB.
But a 15-minute spell of rainfall coupled with hailstorm on early Tuesday threatened to play havoc with their dream.
Now they are afraid that they might have to incur heavy loss this season too. Besides, other crop fields like lentil and mustard also experienced huge damage due to the hailstorm.
It was learnt that crop fields in more than a hundred villages in the district were damaged during the hailstorm.
Alamgir Molla, a farmer of Jungurdi village, said he cultivated the spice item on three-and-a-half bighas of land. But the hailstorm destroyed the entire cropfield in early hours of Tuesday, forcing him to incur a Tk 4 lakh loss.
Najir Matubbar, another farmer of Nagarkanda municipality area, said his three bigha crop field was totally destroyed. Some other farmers also came up with the same remarks.
Kartik Chandra Chakrabarti, deputy director of Faridpur Department of Agricultural Extension, said as per primary assesment, the hailstorm has caused substantial damage to around 90 hectares of onion fields in Nagarkanda and Saltha upazila. Apart from these, some lentil and mustard fields were damaged in other upazilas.
