Rain submerges cropland in Rangpur

Relentless rainfall over the last one week left vast stretches of cropland submerged across Rangpur region, causing severe disruption to maize and paddy harvest. While the window for safe harvesting is rapidly closing, farmers are hoping for improvement in weather.

"It rained intermittently every day over the past one week. There is no one to hire for harvesting the maize from cropland, so we are doing it on our own, wading through around four feet deep water," said Sheher Ali, 65, of Kaliganj in Lalmonirhat.

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials said maize on around 1,25,501 hectares of land and Boro paddy on 5,898 hectares have been cultivated this season in the five districts of the Rangpur region -- Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Rangpur, Nilphamari, and Gaibandha. So far, only 40 percent of the paddy and 30 percent of the maize have been harvested, with most remaining crops are fully mature and ready for harvest.

Photo: Star

"This time of the year is the peak harvesting season. However, the weather is not on the farmers' side at present," said Shafiqul Islam, additional director of DAE (Rangpur).

Subal Chandra Roy, in-charge of Rajarhat Agricultural Meteorological Observatory in Kurigram, said an average of 26mm of rainfall was recorded in the region everyday over the past week.

The weather pattern is likely to persist until May 21, he said.

Photo: Star