Prolonged waterlogging has killed 137 mother litchi trees, about 60 years old, at the Jamalpur Horticulture Centre. With the production of improved-variety litchi saplings disrupted, the government is losing more than a lakh taka in revenue every year. The centre’s other mother orchards are also under threat because of the waterlogging.
The Department of Agricultural Extension’s horticulture centre is located across 25 acres in the Chandra area of Jamalpur town. It has several mother orchards for producing saplings of various fruit trees. But for the past three to four years, with no effective drainage system, water has been standing for long periods across about 10 acres.
The largest and oldest litchi mother orchard had 139 trees. Because of the waterlogging, with water standing at the base of the trees for most of the year, 137 of them have died. As a result, the collection of scions of improved litchi varieties and the production of saplings have almost stopped.
The deputy director of the Jamalpur Horticulture Centre, agriculturist Mohammad Shakhawat Ikram, said about 10 acres of the centre have been submerged in knee-deep water for more than three years. Alongside the litchi orchard, foreign mango, dragon fruit and other improved varieties of fruit tree have also been destroyed by the waterlogging.
He said large quantities of high-quality litchi scions used to be collected here every year to produce saplings, and saplings worth more than a lakh taka were sold. With the production area now under water, the saplings produced are also being destroyed.
He also said the waterlogging had been raised several times at meetings of the district development coordination committee. A high-level delegation, the local administration and municipality officials have also visited the area. Although an assurance was given that an integrated plan would be adopted for draining the water, there has still been no effective solution.
Because of the waterlogging, not only the horticulture centre but people in the surrounding areas have been suffering for a long time. Locals allege that if effective drainage arrangements had been made earlier, such large losses could have been avoided.
On this, the chief engineer of Jamalpur municipality, Md Zahurul Haque, said that because the town has no master drain, waterlogging is created in various areas by even light rain. A survey has already been carried out to determine which areas are low-lying and which are high.
He said that once the drain under construction from the Ansar camp to the Brahmaputra river under a Covid-19 project is completed, the horticulture centre’s drainage problem will largely be resolved. There are also proposals to build three more drains, which will be implemented if the necessary allocation is received.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report