Farmers run out of time to harvest boro
Baked under the scorching sun on Monday afternoon, farmers in Khaliajuri of Netrakona frantically tried to plug a crack developed in the Kirtonkhola flood protection embankment threatening to swamp a haor of 1,200 hectares.
Over 30 per cent of standing boro crop grown in the vast haor land are yet to be harvested, according to the official estimate, with the rest of the crop reaped, mostly half-ripened, in a week after the first wave of flash flood struck between April 4 and 6.
At Madan of Netrakona, on the other hand, farmers looked on as floodwater overflowing a flood protection embankment not repaired in seven or eight years engulfed another haor of 1,200 hectares.
On Sunday evening, an embankment gave in at Derai in Sunamganj, submerging a haor of another 1,200 hectares.
It has been over two weeks boro growers in the north-east have been racing against time to protect their main crop of the year grown largely with high-interest loans.
Given that the flash flood is triggered by heavy rain upstream, the farmers must rely on the protection offered by the flood protection embankments to grow a fifth of the country’s boro.
‘The flood protection embankment at Madan was not repaired despite repeated requests,’ said FM Mubarak Ali, deputy director, Department of Agricultural Extension, Netrakona.
If the locals had not raised the Madan embankment by a foot just when the first spell of flash flood hit the rice crop cultivated in the entire haor would have been ruined, said Mubarak.
‘About 70 hectares of boro crop are still at risk of being submerged in the Madan haor,’ he said.
Barely five per cent of the government-built flood protection embankments in Sunamganj, where half of the haor’s boro rice is produced, were ready in time, according to a study by the haor-based social campaign Paribesh o Haor Unnayan Sangstha.
The flood protection embankments in haor comprising seven districts should be completed by the end of February, according to a government policy.
But on February 28 only five per cent of 108 flood protection embankments studied was complete in terms of earth filling.
About 87 per cent of the embankments had three-fourths of it required earth-filling, the study revealed.
The soil was compacted in only three per cent of the studied embankments while 97 per cent of the embankments lay bare, without being protected by a layer of grass, the study said.
About 52 per cent of the embankments rose vertically, without being supported by any slope and the soil for making 35 per cent of the embankments was collected from a place within their 50 yards, according to the study.
One of the two authors of the study, Kashmir Reza, also the president of the Poribesh o Haor Unnayan Sangstha, said that the embankments were supposed to have been built by local farmers but instead were built by people handpicked by local politicians or selected in exchange for money.
The construction of a flood protection embankment is overseen by a project implementation committee which, according to the government policy, should have real farmers’ representatives.
‘Irregularities in constituting the PICs delayed the construction of the flood protection embankments and also resulted in their wrong placement,’ said Kashmir Reza.
A total of 727 flood protection embankments have been built or repaired this year by the Water Development Board. The WDB cited insufficient funds in turning down many requests of farmers and local government officials for flood protection embankments.
‘A flood protection embankment is never complete if it does not have the required slope or earth-filling or grass barrier,’ said Mizanur Rahman, who teaches forestry and environmental science at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.
‘Properly built embankments could have minimised the farmers’ loss,’ said Mizan, who co-authored the study.
In the first wave of the flash flood, Poribesh o Haor Unnayan Sangstha said, at least 20,000 hectares of boro field were submerged in Sunamganj alone, far above the government estimate of 5,000 hectares.
Water resources deputy minister AKM Enamul Hoque Shameem admitted that the first wave of flash floods washed away flood protection embankment in at least three places.
‘Irregularities and corruption in building flood protection embankment in haor will not be tolerated,’ said Shameem, promising a fair investigation into the matter.
The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre on Monday warned of a fresh spell of heavy rain upstream in Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal and the upper catchment inside Bangladesh over the next three days.
Major rivers in Sylhet, Sunamganj and Netrakona may rapidly swell, the FFWC said, predicting a worsening of the situation in Netrakona today.
The Sarigowain and Baulia rivers continued to flow above their danger marks at Sylhet and Netrakona on Monday while major rivers like the Surma flowed just a few centimetres below danger marks at many points.
The FFWC reported 65mm rainfall in Cherrapunji in the 14 hours until 9:00am on Monday.
During the same period, the India Meteorology Department said Assam recorded 93 per cent of excess rain, followed by Meghalaya with 75 per cent excess rain.
Bangladesh’s vast haor expanse is a natural land depression along the base of an extensive mountain range and constitutes a part of the Meghna River basin, draining one of the world’s wettest places, including Cherrapunji, Meghalaya.
Department of Agricultural Extension’s director general Benojir Alam said that 26 per cent of boro cultivated on 4.52 lakh hectares of haor area was harvested until Monday.
‘The harvest needs another week to peak,’ said Benojir.
Meanwhile, the Turag suddenly swamped 200 hectares of standing boro crops in low-lying areas of Savar on Monday, prompting farmers to cut their paddy plants long before they ripened.
‘Some of the crops would not ripen in 20 days,’ said Najiat Ahmed, upazila agriculture officer, Savar.
More areas were submerged in Sunamganj and Sylhet as well.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/168449/farmers-run-out-of-time-to-harvest-boro
