The agriculture ministry has advised farmers in seven northeastern haor districts to harvest paddy that has reached 80 percent maturity to protect the crop from heavy rainfalls. 

Heavy and severe rainfalls are expected from May 3 in the northeastern part of the country, the ministry said in a special advisory yesterday citing a forecast from Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

The advisory suggested that farmers should quickly harvest the standing Boro paddy if the crop's maturity appears to have reached 80 percent and store it in a safe and dry place. 

The ministry also recommended that growers quickly harvest matured vegetables and avoid applying fertiliser and pesticides to the crops.

The advice comes at a time when a severe heatwave has been sweeping across the country for more than three weeks, raising concerns about agricultural production, particularly for vegetables, mangoes, and Boro paddy that are now in the flowering and grain formation stages.

Farmers have planted Boro, which accounts for about 55 percent of the total annual rice output, on 48.56 lakh hectares of land this year, an increase from 48.52 lakh hectares the previous year, data from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) showed. 

This year, the paddy variety has been grown on 4.53 lakh hectares in the haor or wetland areas, which include Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Kishoreganj, Brahmanbaria, and Netrokona. 

According to the DEA, farmers have harvested 69 percent of the crop.