The Water Development Board (WDB) in Sunamganj has urged the farmers to finish Boro harvesting as soon as possible as the water level of the rivers is on the rise.

Meanwhile, an acute labour crisis is delaying the harvest, according to the farmers.

Last year, the flash flood hit the Sunamganj haor areas on March 29 and in 2016, on April 14.

Due to the flooding, farmers lost their harvest completely last year and more than 60 percent the year before, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Sylhet.

The WDB has already started alerting the farmers, said Abu Bakar Siddique Bhuiyan, executive engineer of WDB in Sunamganj.

The water level in the haor basin is increasing rapidly, he said. It was measured one metre on April 19, 1.74 metre the next day and 2.74 on Monday.

It is also raining in India's Meghalaya as well as in Sunamganj, so the water level could increase suddenly. All upazila nirbahi officers in the district have been alerted, he added.

The WDB built many embankments in haor areas to protect the Boro cultivation, he said. Those are 6.5 metres in height and the danger level is considered to be 8.5 metres, he said.

According to the DAE, Boro paddy has been cultivated on 4.73 lakh hectares of land in four districts of the division this year. In Sunamganj alone, paddy was harvested on 2.22 lakh hectares of land.

Ninety percent paddy is ripe enough and ready to be harvested, said Shwapan Kumar Saha, assistant director of DAE in Sunamganj.

Almost 30 percent of the paddy has already been harvested, he said adding that usually, the harvest should have been completed by this time.

But a shortage of labourers is hampering the harvest, said many of the farmers.

According to them, in the last two years, many had to leave their home and move to other places in search of jobs after flash floods wreaked havoc in the haors.

In addition, due to the flash floods, the influx of seasonal labourers during harvest has also dwindled.

Masudur Rahman, a farmer in Shanir Haor area under Tahirpur upazila, said, “I cultivated Boro on 28 acres of land. It is impossible for me to finish harvesting on time; I'm still looking for labourers… The paddy is ripe enough but if the flash flood hits… it will destroy everything.”

To face the labour crisis, Sunamganj District Administration has already requested the upazila parishads to purchase equipment such as machines for harvesting from their funds to support the farmers.

Sabirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Sunamganj, said, “The farmers went through tough times in the last two years… we are trying our best to protect the harvest.”

“Apart from purchasing equipment, we also requested solvent people to buy such machines and support poor farmers by lending them those,” he said.