Bangladesh is going through the least rainy year in four decades. There was no rain during the rainy season. Electricity is not available in time for irrigation. The price of diesel has increased. There is an acute shortage of fertilizers in many areas. Fertilizer is allegedly under syndication. And farmers are not getting fertilizer even with high prices. All in all, the farmers of the country are going through difficult conditions.
During this season, planting of Aman seedlings has suffered a setback due to poor rainfall. Farmers planted 2.30 lakh fewer seedlings this season compared to the same three-month period last year, raising fears that this may impact negatively on the production of Aman rice. This year, farmers have planted seedlings on 48.90 lakh hectares against the targeted 56.20 lakh hectares. Usually, Aman planting is completed by mid-July and the late variety by August. So, the planting of the late variety seedlings is also very late. That’s why the production will definitely be hampered. The government has set a target to produce 1.63 crore tonnes of Aman paddy this year to offset the losses of Boro and Aus crops caused by floods.
Experts said the time for planting seedlings expired in August and farmers are now plating seedlings of late varieties which would not give them expected yield. To them, increased fuel costs for irrigation, unavailability of fertilizer in many places even in high prices and poor rainfall have already impacted Aman farming. The delayed planting of seedlings would ultimately hamper the production. The unfavourable weather conditions will make the farmers go for supplementary irrigation to get an expected yield, which will ultimately push up the production costs, they said, adding that the increased prices of fertilizers also aggravated the situation. Aman, the second biggest crop after Boro, is a rain-fed paddy. It accounts for 39 percent of the total grains produced in Bangladesh.
This year, a shortage of rain in parts of China and India, the first and the second largest rice producing countries in the world, has caused the rice planting areas to shrink. Here lies the concern for Bangladesh, the third largest rice grower, which still needs to import to stabilise supply and price of the staple.
Now Bangladesh’s scope for sourcing rice from India may diminish. But we do not import much rice from Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar. It is the duty of our agricultural scientists today to develop rice varieties and agronomic practices that consume less water. Lack of accountable and structural government is at the root of the problems ordinary people are living with.
