KURIGRAM — Farmers on the Tista riverbed in Rajarhat upazila of Kurigram are facing heavy losses after hailstorms and excessive rainfall damaged chili, onion and other crops despite a bumper harvest this season, officials said.
The upazila agriculture office said the natural disaster destroyed crops worth nearly 2 crore taka (about $1.8 million) belonging to 563 farmers in the char areas. Farmers in the Tista riverbed are now in despair.
The damaged crops include maize, china grass, vegetables, chili, onion and black cumin. Chili and onion farmers are facing the greatest losses. Along with the damage from hail and heavy rain, farmers are struggling to recover production costs because they are not getting fair market prices.
A visit to the Tista char area in Ghoryaldanga union showed miles of green crops including peanut, china grass, sesame, linseed, onion and chili filling the riverbed. But behind this natural beauty lies the farmers’ suffering.
The upazila agriculture office said chili and onion have been cultivated on 815 hectares of land in the upazila this season. Many farmers received good prices early in the season when the weather was favorable.
However, prices fell suddenly when farmers brought immature chili to market en masse over fears of heavy rain.
Saifunnahar Sathi, the Rajarhat upazila agriculture officer, said yields of chili and other crops on the Tista chars have been good. She said that despite some damage from the natural disaster, farmers will be able to make up for the losses through their hard work.
Abdullah Al Mamun, deputy director of the Kurigram District Department of Agricultural Extension, said various crops have been cultivated on 8,528 hectares of land along the Tista River chars this season. Of that, 517.5 hectares of crops were damaged by hail and heavy rain, including 296 hectares that were completely destroyed. As a result, production is expected to fall about 3,022.82 tonnes short of the target.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report