Crops on 29,500 hectares of land and aman seedbeds of 1,229 hectares in Chittagong district have been damaged due to heavy rainfall in last several days.

Farmers in Banshkhali, Anwara, Patia, Lohagara, Boalkhali, Satkania, Mirsarai, Sitakunda, Rangunia and Raozan upazilas, out of 14 upazilas in the district, are facing a great threat and counting heavy losses due to the flood water and rain water caused by Cyclone "Komen".

Sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Chittagong, said the torrential rain and onrush of hill water, triggered by the Bay depression, have inundated the aman seedbeds and croplands.

A total of 29,453 hectares of cropland have been submerged in the district. Rain water has already been removed from some croplands but it will take some more time to cultivate new crops there, the DAE sources added.

Mohammad Aminul Haque Chowdhury, deputy director of DAE, said leave of all officials of the department in Chittagong region has been cancelled.

The farmers have now become busy with making their land cultivable and growing vegetables there, he said, adding that vegetables will be available in the local markets in some two to three weeks.

Simultaneously, seedbeds are being sown with aman seedlings, he added.

The DAE sources said this year they set a target to produce 1.74 lakh tonnes of aman paddy in the district.

The DAE officials said a target has been set to make the affected land fit for aman cultivation by the end of the August as the authorities concerned have taken steps to resolve water logging in the district.