RAJSHAHI, Aug 27, 2020 (BSS) – Standing crops on around 52,983 hectares of croplands worth around Taka 477.29 crore have, so far, been damaged by the floodwaters affecting over 3.75 lakh farming families in different districts under Rajshahi division, officials said.
Various standing crops like newly transplanted aush and aman paddy, aman seedbeds, direct seeded aman, vegetables, maize and green chili were affected by the floodwater.
Particularly, the deluge has affected aush paddy on 11,433 hectares, aman seedbeds on 1,068 hectares, transplanted aman on 1,007 hectares and vegetables on 3,638 hectares of land.
In Sirajganj district, crops on 23,365 hectares of lands were affected followed by 7,555 hectares in Bogura, 3,958 hectares in Pabna, 2,718 hectares in Naogaon, 2,000 hectares in Rajshahi, 1,480 hectares in Chapainawabganj and 1,406 hectares in Natore districts.
“We have already encouraged the farmers to transplant seedlings of aman paddy in some of the affected areas again after receding flood water in Natore and Naogaon districts,” said Sudhendra Nath Roy, Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).
Meanwhile, the DAE has adopted special measures for boosting seedling production of transplanted Aman paddy through alternative ways aimed at recouping the losses caused by flood in Rajshahi region.
“We’ve developed community seedbeds and floating seedbeds besides growing seed on trays in the flood affected areas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Natore districts,” said Sudhen Roy.
Community seedbed of troubled time Aman paddy has already been developed on 6.20 acres of land in Rajshahi and Naogaon districts through using four high yielding varieties with close supervision and monitoring by the DAE officials.
“We’ve used 150 kilograms (Kg) of Brri Dhan 34, 150-kg of BINA7, 600-kg of Chiniatab and 1,500-kg of BR22 for the community seedbed purposes,” said Sudhen Roy.
Besides, 200 floating seedbeds of BR-23 variety with 144-kg of seeds were created in Rajshahi and Natore districts.
380 seedbeds on trays with 22-kg seeds of Brridhan71 and 32-kg seeds of BINA7 varieties were also erected in Rajshahi.
The appropriate timeframe of the paddy seedlings transplantation is up to August 20 while only its late varieties, developed by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), could be transplanted by end of this month, said Dr Aminul Islam, Chief Scientific Officer of BRRI, here today.
“Timely transplantation of aman paddy seedlings is very important for healthy growth leading to optimum yield in the area,” he said.
He said some of the farmers are expecting transplantation of seedlings after harvesting of Aush paddy and receding floodwater. “We have some late varieties for them,” Dr Islam added.
Meanwhile, the DAE has set a target of producing around 22.19 lakh tonnes of transplanted Aman rice from 7.67 lakh hectares of land in all eight districts under Rajshahi division in the coming season.
Apart from this, the DAE has set a target of producing around 7.5 lakh tonnes of Aush rice from 2.52 lakh hectares of land in the division.
However, farming of Aush paddy has exceeded target predicting a record production of the food crop in Rajshahi division during the current season despite the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The farmers have brought 1,639 hectares more lands under the paddy farming compared to the target set by the DAE after the best uses of facilities provided by the government.
Sources said government incentive, technological assistance, high yielding seeds, suitable climatic condition, frequent rainfall and satisfactory yield and market price of the newly harvested Boro paddy and rice are being adjudged as the major factors of exceeding the farming target.
Farmers have already started harvesting aush paddy with bumper yield everywhere in the region creating scopes of ensuring food security besides job opportunities for many people amid the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
They are very much happy after getting bumper paddy yield besides availing the scopes of spot selling of the newly harvested paddy.