With crops damaged on 2,533 hectares of land by floods, farmers of seven upazilas in Gaibandha are now in dire need of Aman seedlings as they want to recoup losses by producing the food grains.
According to the district’s Agricultural Extension Department (DAE), a total of 126,000 hectares of land have been targeted for cultivating Aman paddy this season.Till Tuesday, seedlings have so far been sown on 102,600 hectares of land.
However, farmers are yet to sow seedlings on around 15,800 hectares of land as their seedbeds have been washed away by the floods. They said the best time of sowing Aman seedlings is from July 15 to August 15.
The seedlings crisis has added to the woes of them who have been suffering from huge crops loss caused by floods.
According to the district DAE, around 2,533 hectares of cropland have been damaged by floods of which 85 hectares of land are seedbeds, 260 hectares vegetables, 160 hectares Aman paddy, 1900 hectares jute, 40 hectares sesame and 40 hectares peanuts.
It also said the flood has so far incurred a loss of around Tk 27 crore to the farmers in seven upazilas namely Sadar, Gabindaganj, Sundaganj, Palashbari, Saghata, Sadullapur and Phulchhori.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the saplings crisis, many traders are now doing brisk business by selling seedlings for high prices at local markets.
Sultan Miah, a 55-year-old farmer from Longa Bazaar village of Sadar said: “I have four bigha of land. But owing to the saplings crisis, I have managed to sow seeds on only 2 bighas of land.”
As the floods washed away his seedbeds, Sultan was compelled to buy seedlings from the local market, costing him a lot of money.
“I have bought per bundle of 80 saplings for Tk500. I have bought six bundles of saplings which cost me a total of Tk3,000.” Sultan said
“However the production cost of six bundles of saplings is not more than Tk 15 to 20,” he added.
Another flood affected farmer Amzad Miah, 45, from Uriya Union of Phulchhori upazila, said: “My three bigha of Aman paddy was completely damaged by flood. I went to the chairman for seedlings.The chairman said, ‘How I would give you saplings if the government does not give us?’
“Later I took a loan of some money for buying seedlings,” the farmer added.
Commenting on the crisis, DAE Deputy Director Masudur Rahman said: “We have made Aman seedbeds on around 42 hectares, by which around 933 hectares of land can be covered. We will soon distribute saplings among the farmers.”
