<i>Jute drying up for poor rain</i>
Harvested jute gets dried at a field in Pirgachha upazila of Rangpur district as local water bodies contain only a little water due to scanty rainfall during this monsoon.Photo: STAR
Thousands of farmers in Rangpur division are facing problem to rot their harvested jute this season due to lack of sufficient water in rivers, ponds and canals. The situation has arisen as this monsoon saw inadequate rainfall. Big farmers are using shallow machine to draw water from underground to fill the dried up canals and ponds for rotting jute fibre while many others taking their produce to distant water bodies for the purpose. Both the ways add to the production cost. Farmers fear degradation of the quality and colour of this season's jute fibre as a large quantity of the harvest has already dried up in the fields. The DAE distributed a good number of ribbon retting machines among the jute cultivators in the division to peel off fibre from the sticks. Farmers, however, have termed the method too costly. If the drought-like situation continues for a few more days, production of raw jute fibre in the region will decline by around 25 percent, agriculture experts said.
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