Standing crops on around 52,983 hectares of croplands worth around Taka 477.29 crore have, so far, been damaged by the floodwaters affecting over 3.75 lakh farming families in different districts under Rajshahi division, officials said.
Various standing crops like newly transplanted aush and aman paddy, aman seedbeds, direct seeded aman, vegetables, maize and green chili were affected by the floodwater, reports BSS.
Particularly, the deluge has affected aush paddy on 11,433 hectares, aman seedbeds on 1,068 hectares, transplanted aman on 1,007 hectares and vegetables on 3,638 hectares of land.
In Sirajganj district, crops on 23,365 hectares of lands were affected followed by 7,555 hectares in Bogura, 3,958 hectares in Pabna, 2,718 hectares in Naogaon, 2,000 hectares in Rajshahi, 1,480 hectares in Chapainawabganj and 1,406 hectares in Natore districts.
“We have already encouraged the farmers to transplant seedlings of aman paddy in some of the affected areas again after receding flood water in Natore and Naogaon districts,” said Sudhendra Nath Roy, Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE). Meanwhile, the DAE has adopted special measures for boosting seedling production of transplanted Aman paddy through alternative ways aimed at recouping the losses caused by flood in Rajshahi region.
“We’ve developed community seedbeds and floating seedbeds besides growing seed on trays in the flood affected areas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Natore districts,” said Sudhen Roy.
Community seedbed of troubled time Aman paddy has already been developed on 6.20 acres of land in Rajshahi and Naogaon districts through using four high yielding varieties with close supervision and monitoring by the DAE officials. “We’ve used 150 kilograms (Kg) of Brri Dhan 34, 150-kg of BINA7, 600-kg of Chiniatab and 1,500-kg of BR22 for the community seedbed purposes,” said Sudhen Roy.
Besides, 200 floating seedbeds of BR-23 variety with 144-kg of seeds were created in Rajshahi and Natore districts.
