Rain spoils aman seedbeds in 3 coastal districts

Heavy rain damaged aman seedbeds on 1200 hectares of land in three coastal districts Patuakhali, Barguna and Pirojpur.

Our Patuakhali correspondent reported that continuous rainfall destroyed seedbeds on nearly 1000 hectares of land in different upazilas of Patuakhali and Barguna districts.

Farmers in the area are getting frustrated as Aman is the main crop in these areas.

Mahfuzur Rahman, upazila agriculture officer in Rangabali of Patuakhali, said Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) set a target to cultivate aman paddy on 36,000 hectares of land and prepared seedbeds on 500 hectares this year. Of the land, seedbeds on 100 hectares are totally rotten.

He also suggested the farmers to prepare new seedbeds for the purpose.

In the beginning of the season farmers prepared seedbeds but the seedlings got affected due to heavy rainfall for the last two weeks.

In Barguna district, about 500 hectares of aman seedbeds in 42 villages under Amtali and Taltali upazilas were spoiled due to water logging caused by the incessant rainfall.

Rustam Ali, a farmer of Godanga village in Amtali upazila said he prepared seedbeds on 50 decimals of land but all his saplings were ruined as it is under knee deep water for the last two weeks.

Nizam Uddin of Chaulapara village in Taltali upazila said it will be difficult for the farmers to prepare new seedbeds in a short time.

Away in Pirojpur, aman saplings on about 200 hectares of land in different upazilas of the district were damaged as rain water inundated seedbeds.

Upazila agriculture office sources said to recover the losses, a number of farmers have started to prepare new seedbeds.

Nirmal Kanti, a farmer of Sikdermallik village in Sadar upazila, said he will have to prepare seedbeds again as all his saplings have already been damaged due to excessive rain and tidal water.

DAE set a target to cultivate aman on 65,200 hectares of land and prepared seedbeds of 4,900 hectares of land.

Abul Hossain Talukder, deputy director of DAE in Pirojpur, said they have suggested the farmers to use fertilizer to save their damaged saplings from rotting.