Thousands of Aman growers on verge of missing planting season

Thousands of farmers are set to miss aman planting season with vast low-lying areas in northern, central and southern Bangladesh remaining under water amid forecasts of further flooding of some of the affected areas over the next three days.

Department of Agricultural Extension estimate shows that almost a quarter of 55.62 lakh hectares of land, which would have been turned into aman fields by now, could not even be cultivated though the planting season is almost nearing its end.

The flood affected nearly 71,000 hectares of the cultivated land, according to official estimate, which is clearly an underestimation for it is totally inconsistent with reports prepared by government field offices.

The government insisted that the loss in the production of the country’s second most important grain would not impact food security but thousands of farmers are worried about not having enough to eat until next crop because of the loss.

‘It has become certain now that a long period of starvation lies ahead of us,’ said Bulu Mia, a farmer of Isli Char, Gangachara, Rangpur, whose two attempts to grow aman in mid-June and late July failed because of flooding.

Triggered in late June by the onrush of water from upstream, the flooding worsened over more than a month as it reached its peak at the end of July, engulfing vast areas in northern and central Bangladesh.

Some of the central districts are still under water with three rivers including the Padma still flowing above their flood levels.

Although flood water receded from many areas in the north, farmers there were unable to cultivate aman because of seedling shortage.

‘Flood destroyed my aman seedbed twice. And I don’t have money to buy aman seedling from the market,’ said Shamim Miah, Char Rajibpur, Kurigram. 

Department of Agricultural Extension’s additional director at Rangpur Mohammad Ali said that the latest spell of flooding in the coastal region destroyed many seedbeds that were supposed to supply them with seedlings, reported New Age correspondent in Lalmonirhat.

‘Over 19,000 famers will not be able to cultivate aman because of seed shortage in Rangpur division,’ said Mohammad Ali.

The Rangpur zone alone estimated that nearly 28,000 hecatres of aman were damaged there.

Aman seeds are grown on seedbeds from June and farmers start planting seedlings after they become 30 to 35 days old.

About 78 per cent of aman cultivated in the country are of the varieties that need from 100 to 140 days to mature to get full yield.

‘Aman is a photosensitive crop which should be sown by August 15 to get a good yield,’ Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University agronomy professor Mirza Hasanuzzaman told the New Age correspondent.

He said that even improved aman varieties are unlikely to bear expected yield if they did not get enough vegetative growth for which they need to stay in the field a certain amount of time.

‘Late planting will definitely affect production,’ said Hasan.

There are varieties of aman which are especially fit for growing in low-lying areas for they grow and remain above the water with natural rise in water level, but their cultivation became uncommon over the years after barrages built upstream made flooding unpredictable.

Analysing water development board’s current data on river water and forecast, water resource specialist Ainun Nishat said that vast areas of low-lying land are likely to stay submerged throughout August with the rivers flowing at almost their flood levels.

He said that farmers already missed the season when rain makes it easier for farmers to grow aman.

‘In September, farmers may need to artificially irrigate their fields,’ said Ainun Nishat.

October is the month when aman starts flowering when daylight stays for around ten hours.

October is a little more than a month away when the smartest of aman variety would not get enough time to be fully yielding, said agronomists.

New Age correspondent in Munshiganj reported that vast areas in the district were still under water and farmers would not be able to cultivate fields before two more weeks.

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute director general Shahjahan Kabir said that aman could not be cultivated in Shariatpur, Tangail, Manikganj and Madaripur districts because of water stagnation.

‘There are enough seedlings in supply for farmers,’ said Shahjahan, adding that the loss in aman production would not impact the overall food security.

‘People would have more than enough to eat,’ said Shahjahan.

But his comment did not reflect the situation in the field when the coarse rice price rose more than 8 per cent over the last month despite government’s repeated assurance that there was surplus in production.

The agriculture ministry recently said that flood also destroyed aush cultivation on more than 30,000 hectares.

Aman accounts for almost 40 per cent of the country’s rice grain production of 3.8 crore tonnes. The country produces about 30 lakh tonnes of aush rice while the rest are boro rice.

News Couretesy: www.newagebd.net