Farmers fret over cold affecting Boro farming

Special Correspondent :
Farmers are worried as their Boro seed beds are affected by various diseases including cold injury due to thick fog and ongoing severe cold sweeping across the country.

As a result, farmers are in tension whether they will able to grow Boro rice to their expected level if such inclement weather continues for long.

Meanwhile, the government has set a target to produce Boro on about 50.56 hectares of land this year, which was 49.76 lakh hectares last year.

The ongoing cold wave with dense fog sweeping over the northern districts in last few days is affecting the seedlings of the seedbed making the farmers more worried about the Boro farming.

According to Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), cold wave sweeping over Rajshahi, Pabna, Naogaon, Chuadanga and Kushtia districts including Rangpur Division’s Rangpur, Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Thakurgao, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat and Dhaka and Mymensingh division’s Tangail, Mymensingh and Jamalpur districts.
Mild cold wave is moving over and will continue for next two-three days.

“The farmers could keep the Boro seedbeds under irrigated water in the evening and drain the water out in the morning everyday to avoid cold injuries to the seedlings.

Apart from it, the farmers to keep the seed beds covered with polythene at day and remove the cover at sunlight so that the seedlings are not damaged under the impact of prevailing cold spell and fog,” Md Abu Jafor Al Monsur, Deputy Director (Monitoring) of the Field Wing Services under the Department of Agriculture Extension (DaE) told The New Nation on Sunday.

The field level Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers (SAAOs) are also suggesting the farmers about their doings to keep the Boro seedlings well in the seedbeds, he added.

“At least 15 °C-20 °C temperature is needed for Boro seedlings. The seedlings might be damaged due to cold wave if the bone chilling cold wave swept over the country 10-15 days at a stretch.

We are motivating the farmers to adopt the precautionary measures for protecting the Boro seedlings through our field officers,” Md Abu Jafor Al Monsur said in reply to a query.

However, some 4.52 lakh hectares of land were cultivated in haor areas of Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Netrakona and Brahmanbaria districts.

And in total, both haor and outside, 9.53 lakh hectares of land were cultivated in these seven districts with a production target over four million tonnes.