Farmland Shrinks in Bagerhat: Farmers grapple with poverty and uncertainty

Bagerhat Correspondent :

Golden paddy (corn) flowers are not swinging in the vast tracts of paddy lands like the past. At present shrimps and lobsters are being cultivated in those paddy fields as the water and soil of the area became salty. During the last one decade this change enriched thousands of people in this coastal district of Bagerhat undoubtedly.

But on the contrary, this change thrown lakhs of farmers into utter digress, misfortune, poverty, uncertainty and miseries during the period. The concerned persons disclosed, due to extreme salinity thousand hectares of paddy cultivatable lands of Rampal, Mongla, Morrelganj, Kachuaand Bagerhat Sadar Upazilas turned into shrimp and lobster cultivable lands and consequently, demand of shrimps and lobsters was increased to a great extent in the international market and it earned a lot of foreign currencies.

As a result, lot of a section of people, mainly businessmen and rich people became fortunate enough and lucky. On the other hand, lakhs of people, mainly farmers and marginal agriculturists are gradually becoming from poor to poorest. Their paddy lands became unfit for cultivation; many lost their paddy lands and are overhead and years in debt. Lakh of families were perplexed. AtiarRahman, a farmer of the village Haritakitala under Morrelganj Upazila told, I have 7.5 acres of paddy lands where once cultivated paddy. But at present, I am cultivating paddy on only 2.5 acres of lands. On the rest 5 acres lands shrimps are being cultivated by the powerful persons forcibly. Ratan Hawladar, a farmer of village Chila under Mongla Upazila told, I have 5 acres of paddy lands and now all the lands were brought under shrimp’s cultivation. In order to cultivate shrimps, saline water is allowed to enter in the shrimp farms forcibly by the shrimp cultivators. As a result, paddy cultivation becomes impossible on the part of the poor paddy cultivators. In many cases poor paddy cultivators are forced to lease out their paddy lands to the rich and powerful shrimp cultivators in nominal money known as ‘Hari’.

According to a survey done by Khulna Soil Research Development Institute (SRDI) and Bagerhat Agriculture Extension Department in the last year, it was noticed that the salinity of lands in the different places of the district increased almost to double during the last one decade alone.

In the dry season the salinity in the water of the major rives like Bhairab, Pashur, Daratana, Ghashiakhali, Panguchi of the district raises up to 20 DCM (Deep Chlorophyll Maximum) which is above the tolerance capacity of most of the crops including paddy.

In the year of 2020, the total crop lands were 1 (one) lakh, 84 thousand 8 hundred 41 hectares in the district. In the year of 2024, it was reduced to 1 lakh 60 thousand 8 hundred 61 hectares. Out of them 61 percent are 1 time crop lands, 27 percent are 2 times crop lands and the rest 12 percent are 3 times crop lands. Following the increasing the salinity in the water the crop lands are being easily and automatically diverted into shrimp cultivable lands. Nur-e-Alam, convener of Khulna division of “DharitryRakkayAmra (We protect the World)”, due to the change of climate crumbling appeared in paddy cultivation in Bagerhat district.