Smiles fade at Gumai Beel

The farmers cutting crops at Gumai Beel were not happy.

Mitoon Chowdhuryfrom Ranguniabdnews24.com

Published : 18 Nov 2014, 11:31 AM

Updated : 18 Nov 2014, 11:31 AM

Harvest, they say, has not been not good because of scant rain, swarming insects and blast disease affecting yield.

So, smiles have faded with chances of profit for those farming in the land better known as Chittagong’s food silo.

Paddy growth per hectare has lessened according to the Department of Agricultural Extension.

The paddy sown at Gumai Beel ripe faster than paddy in other parts of Chittagong, so the cutting already began a few weeks back.

The blue autumn sky above the vast fields of paddy was dotted with Wren Drongos, Mynas and some pigeons too.

Ducks swam in search of grains on the drying Kumma canal that ran from one side of the marshland to the other.

The farmers of the serene Gumai Beel were spoken to at Kadamtali, Kata Bat-tal, Majher Beel and Nishchintapur – the places that surround it.

Mohammad Ishak of Kadamtali said he planted Aman paddy on six Kani of land. On each Kani, he spent Tk 7,000 starting from sowing to reaping. He assumes he will get Tk 10,000 maximum for paddy in each Kani.

(1 Kani = 160 Decimal/40 Decimal).

“It needed to rain last month, but it didn’t. The paddy has been breaking away at the shoots.”

Other farmers say they spent average Tk 2,000 on cultivating crops in each Kani. Four farmers do the sowing on each Kani of land and are paid Tk 500 each.

They are paid Tk 500 more for weeding. Fertilisers add another Tk 500 to the expenses.

Five must work to reap the crop from one Kani land and must be paid at least Tk 400 each every day which means Tk 2,000 per day. Another Tk 500 per day goes for pesticides and irrigation just a couple of days before harvesting.

The overall cost comes up to around Tk 7,000 this year.

Local farmer Md Hossain says those who farmed in their own lands might be able to cover up the cost by selling their harvests, but for farmers cultivating on other's land it "will yield nothing."

He says a pest attack due to no rain towards the harvest will hurt this year's production.

According to Rangunia Upazila DAE, Aman paddy has been farmed in 16,000 hectares of land including the 2,400 in Gumai Beel.

"The rain during Cyclone 'Hud Hud' left a good impact on the crop," Upazila Agriculture Officer Md Atktaruzzaman told bdnews24.com claiming that pest attack was not that much this year.

The official figure, however, shows a drop in production at Gumai Beel.

The yield this year stood between 3.15 tonneS and 3.3 tonnes per hectare compared withlast year's 3.25 tonne to 3.6 tonne.