RAJSHAHI, Oct 8, 2023 (BSS)- Standing crops on around 369.52 hectares of land have reportedly been affected by inundation caused by the recent huge downpour in the district.
 
The latest primary data given by the local office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) showed there are transplanted aman paddy on 83,177 hectares, vegetables on 5,449 hectares, black gram on 4,132 hectares and summer onion on 140 hectares of land in the district at present.

Among those, around 369.53 hectare land’s standing crops were inundated by the rainwater.

Suman Ali, 43, a farmer of Darusha village under Paba Upazila, has cultivated cauliflower on three bigha of land in two separate places with the hopes of good profit. Ali said his hopes and aspirations were vanished by the monsoon.

DAE Deputy Director Mozder Hossain said the highest 128 hectares were inundated in Paba Upazila followed by 122 hectares in Bagha Upazila, 46 hectares in Tanore, 36.52 hectares in Charghat, 30 hectares in Godagari and seven hectares in Mohanpur Upazilas.

He, however, said an actual picture of the extent of losses will be available after receding water.

Local office of the Department of Meteorology has recorded 332 millimeters rainfall from 10 pm on Wednesday to 6 am on Friday. The met office sources said the rainfall has broken the last ten years record in the region.

With the standing crops, many fish farming ponds were overflowed by the rain water affecting the fish farmers badly.

Mridul Islam, 48, a farmer of Tanore Upazila, said his fish farming ponds on 30 bigha of land were overflowed by the deluge. He had fish worth around Taka 40 lakh in the ponds and all of those were washed out.

Prof Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan of the Department of Geology and Mining at Rajshahi University said the unplanned and illegal excavation of ponds and development of housing plots are escalating public sufferings.

Extent of public suffering will go up in the years to come if necessary measures aren't taken in this regard immediately, he said.

All the field level entities concerned including administration should come forward and work together to mitigate the problem as early as possible, he opined.