Rain, strong winds damage crops in Hili

Days of rain, coupled with strong winds in Dinajpur's Hili area have caused severe damage to crops across hundreds of acres.

According to local farmers, acres of paddy fields have been flattened due to continuous rain in the last few days. On top of this, they are concerned about insect attacks in the paddy field.

At the beginning of the current Aman season Hili farmers had to plant aman variety of paddy through irrigation a little late as there was no rain in the Dinajpur region. Later, Thanks to adequate rainfall and proper application of fertilisers on the land, the paddy plants grew rather well. However, farmers faced insect infestation and the condition improved after they used pesticides several times according to the advice of the agriculture office. But the recent rainfall and windy weather has left some paddy fields flattened.

"Insects were rampant in the paddy fields this year. I applied the medicine three to four times on the land as per the advice of the local agriculture office. At the moment when the paddy would ripen, the paddy plants flattened due to the rain," said Babul Hossain, a farmer from Ismailpur in Hilli.

"Many farmers have been affected by this," he added.

Farmer Ajmal Hossain said, "We expected to harvest 20 to 22 maunds per bigha but now after the rainfall we can at best harvest 10 to 12 maunds."

Hakimpur Upazila Agriculture Officer Dr Mamtaz Sultana said that aman paddy has been cultivated in 8,150 hectares of land in the upazila this season.

"Currently, the condition of the paddy is good," she said before adding, "The rainfall helped the temperature fall a little, which has reduced infestation of insects in paddy fields. At present the insect infestation in the paddy fields is at a tolerable level which will not be detrimental in terms of expected production."