Prolonged floods may take heavy toll on Aman crops
Friday, 3 August 2007
S M Jahangir
Agriculturists and officials expressed their fear that prolonged floods could take a heavy toll on the country's agriculture sector, especially on the current 'aman' cultivation.
"If the flood waters persists for long, it could be a major blow to the local agriculture sector, particularly to the current aman crop," a senior agricultural official told the FE Thursday.
Official sources, however, said the overall flood situation across the country continued to worsen as some 45 districts have already been hit by the flood waters.
With worsening the overall flood situation in the country, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has established a monitoring cell to oversee its day-to-day position and facilitate the post-flood rehabilitation programme to be launched for recouping the possible agricultural losses.
"A special cell has been created at the Secretariat under the supervision of the agriculture secretary to monitor the flood situation, and also to assess the extent of losses to be faced by the country's agriculture sector due to the current flooding," a senior MoA official said Thursday.
The main purpose of assessing the possible losses is to start a rehabilitation programme for the affected agriculture soon after the floodwaters recedes, the official said.
According to the monitoring cell, the ongoing floods had submerged more than 441,000 hectares of agricultural land across the country until Thursday.
Of the total, the floods affected both seedbeds and planted aman on about 200,000 hectares of land while standing 'aus' crop on 121,000 hectare of land had also hit by the current flooding, it said.
Moreover, the floodwaters also submerged grown vegetables on 96,500 hectares of land across the country, said an official.
Manikganj, Tangail, Jamalpur, Sirajgani, Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Netrokona, Natore, Kurigram, Magura, Faridpur and Rajbari are among the worst affected districts.
Fearing possible crop losses due to the floods, the government has already planned to prepare aman seedbeds on 500 acres of land for distributing it to the affected farmers after the floods situation improves, an MoA official said.
Moreover, the MoA will also provide seeds and other necessary supports to the farmers for the preparation of aman seedbeds on 10 acres of land in every flood-hit upazila, said the official.
Apart from that, the ministry has already directed the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and its field-level officials to strictly monitor the flood situations and send information regarding the flood-related losses to its monitoring cell, he mentioned.
According to the MoA officials, the DAE will submit a post-flood rehabilitation programme for the affected agriculture to the MoA after the flood situation improves.
Meanwhile, the Adviser in-charge of Agriculture Ministry C S Karim has advised its agencies and officials concerned to take necessary steps and preparations for the post-flood rehabilitation programme.
The Adviser along with some senior agriculture officials will to pay a visit to some flood-hit areas today (Friday), including Sylhet and Moulvibazar to see the extent of agricultural losses there, a senior official said.
Agriculturists and officials expressed their fear that prolonged floods could take a heavy toll on the country's agriculture sector, especially on the current 'aman' cultivation.
"If the flood waters persists for long, it could be a major blow to the local agriculture sector, particularly to the current aman crop," a senior agricultural official told the FE Thursday.
Official sources, however, said the overall flood situation across the country continued to worsen as some 45 districts have already been hit by the flood waters.
With worsening the overall flood situation in the country, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has established a monitoring cell to oversee its day-to-day position and facilitate the post-flood rehabilitation programme to be launched for recouping the possible agricultural losses.
"A special cell has been created at the Secretariat under the supervision of the agriculture secretary to monitor the flood situation, and also to assess the extent of losses to be faced by the country's agriculture sector due to the current flooding," a senior MoA official said Thursday.
The main purpose of assessing the possible losses is to start a rehabilitation programme for the affected agriculture soon after the floodwaters recedes, the official said.
According to the monitoring cell, the ongoing floods had submerged more than 441,000 hectares of agricultural land across the country until Thursday.
Of the total, the floods affected both seedbeds and planted aman on about 200,000 hectares of land while standing 'aus' crop on 121,000 hectare of land had also hit by the current flooding, it said.
Moreover, the floodwaters also submerged grown vegetables on 96,500 hectares of land across the country, said an official.
Manikganj, Tangail, Jamalpur, Sirajgani, Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Netrokona, Natore, Kurigram, Magura, Faridpur and Rajbari are among the worst affected districts.
Fearing possible crop losses due to the floods, the government has already planned to prepare aman seedbeds on 500 acres of land for distributing it to the affected farmers after the floods situation improves, an MoA official said.
Moreover, the MoA will also provide seeds and other necessary supports to the farmers for the preparation of aman seedbeds on 10 acres of land in every flood-hit upazila, said the official.
Apart from that, the ministry has already directed the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and its field-level officials to strictly monitor the flood situations and send information regarding the flood-related losses to its monitoring cell, he mentioned.
According to the MoA officials, the DAE will submit a post-flood rehabilitation programme for the affected agriculture to the MoA after the flood situation improves.
Meanwhile, the Adviser in-charge of Agriculture Ministry C S Karim has advised its agencies and officials concerned to take necessary steps and preparations for the post-flood rehabilitation programme.
The Adviser along with some senior agriculture officials will to pay a visit to some flood-hit areas today (Friday), including Sylhet and Moulvibazar to see the extent of agricultural losses there, a senior official said.