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Download PDF Scores of farmers, badly affected by recent floods in Tangail, have started cultivating crops to recover the loss as floodwater receded from their croplands.
A vast area in the region was inundated by floods damaging cultivated crops, fruits and vegetables worth crores of taka. Most of the affected farmers cultivated crops taking loans from banks, NGOs, and moneylenders.
Muslem Uddin, a farmer of Hugra under Sadar upazila, said he cultivated transplanted Amon, jute and vegetables on 17 acres of land that were completely damaged by recent floods.
Abdul Hakim, a farmer of Jangalia village, said pineapple and vegetables, which he cultivated on his 10 acres of lands, were damaged as the land remained under water due to heavy downpours during the flood.
The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) of Tangail said the agriculture sector of the district had to incur a loss of Tk 90 crore due to floods. However, different non-government organisations in the district claimed that agricultural products worth over Tk 100 crore were damaged in floods.
According to the DAE statistics, 47,230 hectares of cropland in 12 upazilas under the district were flooded and over 70 percent of those got damaged.
About 26,195 hectares of land on which transplanted amon was cultivated were submerged by recent floods. Of those, 4,700 hectares of land were inundated at Mirzapur upazila in the district.
Jute cultivated on 5,046 hectares of land in the district went under water during floods. Of those, 1,650 hectares of land were inundated at Bhuapur upazila.
Vegetables on 4,234 hectares of land in the district were inundated during the flood. Of those, 850 hectares of land were inundated at Mirzapur upazila in the district.
Other crops damaged by recent floods include transplanted amon, aus, sugarcane, banana, pineapple, chilli, and ginger.
Local DAE officials said they have already distributed seeds of vegetable among the flood-affected farmers. They also said that the badly affected marginal farmers would be provided with seeds of different crops including rice, wheat, pulses, and winter vegetables for free.
Meanwhile, the farmers said that they were forced to buy amon seedlings at a very high price.
“Each 80 bundles of amon seedling is being sold between Tk 300 and Tk 350 at different local markets while it was sold at Tk 150 last season,” the farmers added.
When contacted, Mohammad Hakim Uddin, deputy director of Tangail DAE, said that they had taken up emergency and long-term rehabilitation programmes to help the farmers recover the loss they had suffered due to flood.
“We have been providing seeds of different vegetables to the farmers since the floodwater receded,” he added.
September 2nd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
ASAK,
Let Us all come forward to help our Brother farmers.
CTG must help them financially providing interest free loan as they are backbone of our
society. May ALLAH help all the poor people throught the globe.
Thank You