Moderate to heavy rain brings relief for Aman farmers

Moderate to heavy rains across the country in the last two to three days – after a prolonged dry spell – have relieved thousands of worried Aman farmers.

Poor rainfall since August had left farmers worried as dry lands gave way to cracks in the crop fields, triggering fears of a drought.

The Met office had said the country's July rainfall was 57.6% lower than normal, which is a record in 42 years.

In the first week of September, however, rains returned, bringing life back to standing crops, including paddy and vegetables, agronomists said.

Dinajpur Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Deputy Director Nuruzzaman said it is now raining almost every day in the district. It takes less supplementary irrigation for farmers.

"Rain brought relief from the scorching sun. But more rains are required for standing paddy crops in September because there was little rainfall this time around. If this rainfall continues, the cost of paddy cultivation will be reduced as well as the yield will be better," he added. 

Not only Dinajpur, most of the districts including Bogura, Rangpur, Naogan, and Jamalpur also experienced good rainfall over the last couple of the days. With this, as the irrigation cost of the farmers is reduced, they are also looking forward to the possibility of better yield.

Abu Alam, a paddy-grower of Jashopara in Bogura Sadar, said due to less rain this year, the cost of paddy cultivation has increased owing to costly irrigation. For irrigation by electric machine, farmers have to pay Tk40 per decimal land. And irrigation with the diesel-powered machines costs Tk50 to 55.

"If rains continue like this, the cost of irrigation will also be reduced, and the worry about the yield may also be removed," he added.

Paddy cultivators had faced an acute water crisis during August.

They had to rely on only irrigation with shallow machines. Due to less showers, farmers failed to meet required water for paddy fields, posing a risk in the failure in Aman paddy production target, according to reports sent by TBS correspondents from Dinajpur, Bogura, Rangpur, Jamalpur and many more districts.

According to the agriculture ministry, this year the government has set a target of Aman paddy cultivation on 1.59 lakh hectares of land across the country. As of August last week, paddy has been sown in 70% of targeted land. 

Bogura Met office senior meteorologist Nurul Islam said more moderate rainfall may occur this month.

According to the Bogura Met office, last year, at least 400 mm of rain was recorded in August. Some 130.8 millimetres of rainfall was recorded this August.

The Aman planting period is from 15 July to 15 August. Farmers are in crisis due to less rainfall in August. Last year in September, 116 mm rainfall was recorded. 69.08 mm rainfall was recorded in seven days of this month.

According to the Bangladesh Met office, light to moderate rain/thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at a few places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Sylhet and Chattogram divisions and some places over Dhaka, Khulna and Barishal divisions with moderately heavy falls at places over the country for next 24 hours, commencing 9:00am on Wednesday.

Naogaon DAE Deputy Director Abu Hossian said, "For paddy growing farmers, rains have come as a blessing. It will help crops depend on rain to survive. Farmers have been facing a challenge to irrigate standing crops by using shallow machines. They were facing less rains that threatened to hit the paddy production target."

Naogaon's Badalgachi Upazila Agromet Monitoring Centre Officer Mizanur Rahman said 27.06 mm of rain were recorded from 1-6 September. Of these, 20.06 mm was recorded on 2 September.