Boro farming faces setback for acute seedling crisis
Farmers collecting boro seedlings at Partekur village in Shahjahanpur upazila of Bogra district. Boro seedlings have become very dear as this year's severe cold caused massive damage to seedbeds in the northern districts.Photo: STAR
Farmers in the country's northern region are getting worried as boro cultivation is facing a serious setback due to acute shortage of seedlings and their high prices this season. Admitting that a vast tract of land has remained uncultivated in the region, agricultural officials however said farmers have still time to prepare seedbeds and plant seedlings. According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in the region, seedlings on around 30,000 hectares of land were damaged in the 16 northern districts due to severe cold and dense fog creating acute crisis of seedlings. Officials of the DAE said it now becomes uncertain to fulfil the target of cultivating boro paddy on 16,22,494 hectares of land in the wake of seedlings crisis while Boro production target in the region has been fixed at 65,45,873 metric tons (MTs). Md Momtaz Uddin, deputy director of DAE in Bogra, said there is no need to plant 5/6 seedlings in a bunch for getting high yield. Two seedlings of a bunch are enough to get the same production, he added. Mostafizur Rahman, a farmer of Portekhu village under Shahjahanpur upazila in Bogra, said he still could not cultivate three hectares of his land due to crisis of seedlings. He visited Sirajganj and Natore but could not collect seedlings. Shamsul Islam, a farmer of Khetlal upazila in Joypurhat, he is the only person who cultivated boro on one hectare land in his village. He had bought seedlings of Tk 1,500 to cultivate his one-hectare land last year while he spent Tk 6,000 for the same amount of seedlings this year. Meanwhile, a group of miscreants took away seedlings from the seedbeds of Nazir Hossain, a farmer of Ruparkhamar village under Ulipur upazila in Kurigram, and left Tk 500 in the seedbed as compensation. In a short message, the gang wrote: "We are not thieves. We have taken the seedlings due to crisis of seedlings." Poor and marginal farmers are facing problems in purchasing seedlings from local markets because of its high price.
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