BartaBangla Report :: Floodwaters have inundated 170,000 hectares of farmland in Bangladesh over the last two months.
Aman and Aush paddy, vegetables and spices planted there have been damaged, Rafiqul Islam, deputy director (monitoring) of the Department of Agricultural Extension told bdnews24.com.
Northern and north-eastern districts have suffered flooding due to a gush of water flowing downstream. Experts have been calling it seasonal floods.
“We still don’t know the actual amount of crop that has been damaged. We’ll be able to make an estimate after the water recedes,” Islam said.
“But 170,000 hectares of farmland is underwater.”
The official said other crops have suffered more than paddy.
“Maybe paddy will not suffer much, because Aman was still being planted in many places.
“And ‘Nabi’ rice can be planted in affected areas once the water goes down. But vegetables and spices have been ruined.”
Islam said though the floods were affecting paddy production, it might enhance the yield of Robi crops thanks to deposition of silt.
“So the total agriculture production won’t decline,” he said.
DAE officials said the department had set a target to cultivate planted Aman paddy on 5.25 million hectares of land and produce 13 million tonnes of rice during this year.
But the flooding has affected the planted Aman.
The government plans to cultivate sowed Aman on 399,000 hectares of land and produce 460,000 tonnes of rice this year.
Aush paddy has been cultivated on one million hectares of land from where the government is expecting 2.4 million tonnes of rice.
Islam said the flood damaged different vegetables including eggplant, bean, okra and chilly, driving their prices up.
The flooding has affected houses, business, infrastructures and institutions in 20 districts.
Water Development Board’s Flood Forecast and Warning Centre’s Deputy Divisional Engineer Sazzad Hossain told was little chance for rise in waters.
Waters in the rivers have already started receding, he said.