Boro plants dying for dry spell, acute power crisis
Boro plants are getting damaged in a dried up and cracked field in Raiganj upazila of Sirajganj district as lack of irrigation coupled with hot spell seems to upset the production target this season. Photo: STAR
Boro plants on vast areas of land in several districts are getting damaged as a drought-like situation coupled with serious power crisis is hampering irrigation. Cracks have developed in many lands and plants are gradually turning yellowish, much to the frustration of farmers, reports our Pabna correspondent. Farmers have cultivated boro paddy on 69,450 hectares in nine upazilas of the district but most of the lands have already dried up as farmers could not irrigate those due to acute power crisis, said officials of Agriculture Extension Department (AED) in Pabna. According to AED, 869 deep tube wells including 741 electricity-run ones, and 21,462 shallow tube wells including 3,342 electricity-run ones and 1,470 other local pumps provide irrigation facility in the district. “At least 35 MW power is needed daily for irrigation in nine upazilas of the district. But we are getting only 18 to 20 MW power supply in the peak period of the season,” said an official of Pabna AED. Our Sirajganj correspondent reports: Farmers in the district apprehend missing the production target of boro paddy this season due to irrigation problem. AED sources said 127,850 hectares of land in the district have been brought under boro cultivation this year. A total of 14,058 pumps run by electricity and 57,946 pumps run by diesel were set up in the district to supply water. But most of the power-run pumps have become inoperative due to unusual load shedding and low voltage. "Cracks have developed in my boro field due to lack of water as my pump went out of order about two weeks ago due to erratic power supply," said Zasmat Ali, a farmer of Ullapara. During recent visits to different areas of Raiganj, Tarash, Chalan Beel and Kazipur upazilas, this correspondent saw many farmers feeding their damaged boro plants to cattle. Zahir Uddin, owner of a diesel-run pump at Raiganj, said he could not operate his pump properly as the water level has gone down due to lack of rain. If it does not rain soon, it will be disastrous for boro cultivation, said Sirajganj AED Deputy Director Abu Bakkar Siddique. Our Dinajpur correspondent adds: Boro production in Dinajpur and adjacent districts is likely to face a setback as the farmers cannot smoothly operate their power pumps due to electricity crisis while lack of rainfall coupled with fluctuating temperature has worsened the situation. AED officials said they had a target of boro cultivation on 171,592 hectares of land in Dinajpur district this season with a production target of 646,860 tonnes while the farmers cultivated 178,450 hectares of land, raising the production target to 675,985 tonnes. But acute power crisis seems to dash the hope of farmers as the electricity-run water pumps can hardly operate more than one or two hours a day in the peak irrigation season. At least 98,323 hectares of land in the district depend on power-run irrigation, AED sources said. Dinajpur Palli Biddyut officials said they are getting only 18/22 MW of electricity supply a day against the daily requirement of 81MW during the peak IRRI-boro season. The agricultural officials said the dry spell has already damaged over 10 per cent of boro crop in the district while farmers have put the amount to over 30 per cent. The amount of damage is likely to be much more as there is no sign for end of dry spell yet. Thousands of farmers of Narail district are facing uncertainly as irrigation problem due to power disruption is causing damage to boro crops, reports a correspondent from Narail. Amid severe heat and lack of rain, cracks have developed on the fields. Most of the canals and ponds have dried up and underground water level has depleted, making it hard to get water from normal hand tube wells, especially in Narail Sadar and Lohagara upazilas. Crisis of drinking water has also turned serious in many areas. In Narail district, 38,270 hectares of land has been brought under boro cultivation against a target of 37,271 hectares in the current season.
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