Due to continuous rain and waterlogging, the cultivation of vegetables including pumpkin, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, papaya, banana, paddy in Madhukhali and Dhamrai has destroyed. Farmers fear of losses crore taka.
Dhamrai
Due to continuous rains and waterlogging in Dhamrai of Dhaka, papaya farmers have feared a huge loss of papaya. Papaya trees in many fields have destroyed, the leaves are yellow and due to waterlogging, the papaya trees have fallen in the fields. Papaya farmers believe that there will be a loss of a lot of money. Going to the surface, it can be seen that papaya is being cultivated across hundreds of bighas in Royail and Suapur unions of the upazila. Farmers are leaning towards papaya cultivation in the hope of higher yield and more profit. According to the Upazila Agriculture Office, papaya has been cultivated this year on about 65 hectares of land in several unions including Upazila Suapur, Royal.
Due to rain, papaya trees along with fruits and vegetables are affected by disease. Measures should be taken to prevent mosaic virus infection in papaya trees. Fertilizers such as Boron and Zinc can reduce papaya windfall along with increasing papaya yield and size. Papaya farmer Azat Hossain said, we have cultivated papaya on twenty bigha land. About 10 bigha of papaya land, the rain water is trapped and the papaya tree is rotting at the base of the papaya tree and the tree is dying. This time we have a loss of around Tk30 lakh.Another papaya farmer, Anshar Ali, said that due to heavy rain this year, the water accumulated and the powder became soft and the tree fell in the wind.
One bigha of land used to be sold for about Tk2.5 lakh , this year Tk10-20 thousand have been received. Upazila Agriculture Officer Arifur Rahman said that agriculture is a very challenging profession in our country. Farmers have to deal with disasters and reduce erosion losses and produce. During the monsoon season, papaya fields get waterlogged and rot at the roots. In that case, water drainage should be arranged. Due to the papaya tree being very weak, when there is a bit of strong wind, the tree collapses. Due to the rain, the soil at the base of the papaya tree may move, so if the soil is placed at the base of the tree and tied with a bamboo pole, the tree will not fall.
Madukhali (Faridpur)
Heavy rains have caused huge damage to the cultivation of pumpkin, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, papaya, banana, rice and other vegetables in Madhukhali of Faridpur. The damage was caused by four consecutive days of rain in the first week of October.
Farmer Md. Akram Hossain of Kuraniarchar village of Naopara union of Madhukhali upazila of Faridpur cultivated pepper and pumpkin on 40 percent of the land this year. Every tree had fruit. The tree rotted in the rain . I cultivated sweet pumpkin on 20 percent of the land as a companion crop to pepper.
That tree is also destroyed in the rain. The trees were holding 100 to 120 peaches of sweet pumpkin weighing about one to two kilograms. When I picked them up in the field, I saw that they were all rotten. I spent about Tk50,000 on two crops in 40 percent of the land and sold only Tk12,000 worth of pepper, then all the pepper plants destroyed due to continuous rain. I can't figure out what to do now. I informed the matter to the sub-assistant agriculture officer of my area. There are fears that the vegetable fields may be completely destroyed if the rain continues.
Not only this farmer of Naopara, but the crops of many farmers of some unions including Madhukhali municipal area are going to be ruined due to recent rains. On yesterday, the farmer of Raipur Union of the upazila M Abdur Rahman said that due to continuous rain, 35 percent of the aman seedlings are under water. If the seedling rots, it needs to be planted again. Abdul Alim, a pumpkin grower of Ward No. 2 of the municipality, said that almost half of the pumpkins planted in Baikanthpur field have rotted due to heavy rains. The condition of the rest is not good. Big loss will be incurred this time.
According to the information received from the office of the Department of Agricultural Extension of the upazila, various types of vegetables were cultivated on 2420 hectares of land in Madhukhali upazila, including 1 hectare of cauliflower, 0.5 hectare of cabbage, 6 hectare of sweet pumpkin, 1 hectare of cucumber, 0.5 hectare of bitter gourd, 1 hectare of papaya, 1 hectare of banana and 1 hectare of other vegetables have been damaged. The damage is likely to increase as the rain continues. Meanwhile, due to continuous rains, crop damage has affected the kitchen market.
All vegetables price high. Vendors say prices are slightly higher due to low import of vegetables in the market due to rain damage. On yesterday, a visit to the kitchen market of Madhukhali town showed that green chillies are being sold at Tk 400 per kg, brinjal at Tk 60, papaya at Tk 40, pottle at Tk 60, potato at Tk 55, bitter gourd at Tk 60, sweet pumpkin at Tk 50 per kg. Madhukhali Upazila Agriculture Officer Md. Mahabub Elahi said, in the current situation, there has been more damage to early winter vegetables in Meghchami, Ghazna Union. Market prices have been affected as more and more vegetables have been destroyed by the rains. If the weather does not improve, the damage may increase. We are collecting the damage information and sending it to the department.
ZH
