Farmland across most areas of the nine unions of Lohagara upazila in Chattogram has been damaged by floods. Aman seedbeds, aus paddy, vegetable fields and betel-leaf plots have gone under water. The damage to aman seedbeds, betel-leaf plots and vegetable fields has been heavier still because of excessive rain. The farmland thousands of farmers had staked their hopes on has been washed away.
One of them is Jasim, a farmer of Mali Para in West Padua, ward number 4 of Padua union. With three sons and two daughters, he made a living of sorts by sharecropping other people’s land. Hoping to lift his family out of hardship, he took loans from various cooperative societies, NGOs and private banks and planted bottle gourd, snake gourd, bitter gourd, yardlong bean, papaya, okra, banana, ash gourd, and aus and aman paddy on about 800 decimals of land.
In the recent floods caused by continuous heavy rain and hill run-off, the whole of his cultivated land went under water. With the crop badly damaged, he is now deeply anxious about repaying instalments to the private banks and organisations after the flood.
According to the upazila agriculture office, 150 hectares of cropland, five hectares of betel-leaf plots and 360 hectares of aus and aman seedbeds belonging to 9,400 farmers of the upazila have been completely damaged by flood water. The total loss stands at 5 crore 14 lakh 10 thousand 500 taka.
Jasim, the affected farmer, said: “Hoping for my family’s wellbeing I took a loan of one lakh from Proshika Manobik Unnayan Kendra, two lakh from Padakhep, three lakh from Muslim Aid and three lakh taka from Islami Bank, and grew various kinds of vegetables and aus and aman seedbeds. But the flood water came in and destroyed everything in the field. On one side there is the cost of running the household, on the other repaying the loan — I am losing hope thinking how I will manage both. If the government does not stand beside us at this moment, I do not think there is any way out but death.”
Chashi Mia, a local farmer, said Jasim produces more farm goods than anyone else in the upazila. Although he has a farmer’s card, the bank authorities give him no loan of any kind. Flood water destroyed everything in his vegetable field and left him ruined, he said, so the government should stand beside him in this time of danger.
Nurul Azim, a local resident, said the damage to Jasim’s vegetable field in this flood is so great that it will take him a long time to recover and return to normal. On one side he is in debt, on the other the flood has ruined him. He has to pay instalments every month and every week to various private banks and organisations, and having failed to pay them since the flood, he faces constant humiliation.
Upazila agriculture officer Kazi Shafiul Islam said continuous rain has caused extensive damage to vegetables in various parts of the upazila. Work is under way to assess how much damage has been done at field level. If any government support comes, genuinely affected farmers will be selected and it will be distributed to them, he said. Farmers are also being given the advice they need so that they can start planting again quickly once conditions return to normal.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report