“I am cutting half-rotten paddy in order to understand the mind”
Photo Collected
Shariat Ullah’s family depended on Haor’s paddy. Thinking about how to run the family due to loss.
Every year I get 120 paddy and 130 maunds. Now half of the paddy has gone to water. I am cutting half-rotten paddy in order to understand. Now I am worried about the food of the year. It will take us five years to repair our one-time loss.
The farmer was regretting showing half-ripe rice bundles piled up in the haor khala (threshing and drying plain). Shariat Ullah His house is in Niamatpur village of Gourarang Union of Sunamganj Sadar Upazila. Recently, heavy rains and landslides from upstream have caused great damage to Haor’s paddy fields.
Talked with Shariat Ullah yesterday Monday afternoon at Jowalbhanga Howarpar near the village. All the land of this 67-year-old man is in Jowalbhanga Howrei. Not only Niamatpur, 15 to 20 villages of this Haor area have land of farmers. Shariat Ullah was busy drying paddy with others. Some of his paddy is yet to be threshed. Stacked next to it.
Shariat Ullah’s family has to depend entirely on the boro paddy of Haor. The beginning of farming by the hands of father and grandfather. Still in agriculture. During the work, he said, Howre planted Boro rice on eight acres of land. Out of this, four and a half acres of land has been harvested. The paddy of the remaining three and a half acres of land has been submerged by rain and torrential water.
This old man said that the lands where the paddy was cut were also half ripe. He said, when the water came, the workers did not get it. So with himself and some other people of the village he cut the paddy in ‘Adhibhagi’. Accordingly, half of the harvested rice had to be paid to those people. When the land of the farmers was disappearing in front of the eyes, the laborers could not be found even for a thousand rupees. Again, the combined harvester machine could not harvest paddy due to water in the haor.
In Sunamganj, the rains started from the middle of March. It causes waterlogging in various areas. At the end of April, heavy rains started. It is connected with the mountain stream coming from upstream. According to the information provided by the local agriculture department, more than 42,000 hectares of paddy fields in Sunamganj, Kishoreganj and Haor areas of Netrokona have been damaged due to rains and floods.
The paddy field of Niamatpur village on the north side of Haor. Shariat Ullah, standing in the sun and showing the Haor water, said that his lands were submerged in deep Haor. The farmers could not have imagined that this time they would be drowned in rain and torrential water so quickly. Other years the water comes slowly. This time earlier rains caused flooding in Howar. Later, the rainwater entered and the crop sank.
Shariat Ullah was saying that on April 25, people saw less water in Howar. The next morning he came and saw that the land was sinking. Due to the weather conditions, they were in dire straits for harvesting and threshing rice. Then the rice of the land fell. Farmers were helpless. He said, “All the rice under the water has rotted.” This paddy could not be harvested. And even if it was cut, it wouldn’t do any good.’
Shariat Ullah, a farmer who was in trouble with the harvested rice due to heavy rains, said that this rice was piled up in the field for a week. They could not do any work due to rain and thunder. On Sunday, he brought a machine and threshed the paddy. Now trying to dry.
This farmer shows with wet paddy in hand. He said, the rice has become dirty. These will not be good rice. If it is not good, the price will be lower. Due to being in the heap for a long time, some kind of smell has caught on the rice. So where 15 to 20 maunds of paddy is supposed to be produced in 30th century land, there will be 10 to 12 maunds of paddy. About half of his harvested rice was damaged in the drought.
Shariat Ullah’s family consists of six people including wife and children. The elder of the two sons is 22 years old. The youngest son is six. Father and son together cultivate the land. He said, apart from his own savings, he was borrowing an additional Tk 28,000 to cultivate the land. The NGO has weekly installments on a loan. The debt was supposed to be paid by collecting paddy in Baisakh. But now stay away from debt repayment, making installments has become a liability.
Shariat Ullah’s family needs 40 to 50 maunds of paddy for food in a year. Apart from this, the family has additional expenses of at least 10 thousand rupees per month. He used to sell 20 to 30 maunds of paddy every year apart from his household food. You are worried whether you will eat or not.
While talking to Shariat Ullah, the nearby farmers joined in the conversation. Same thing with them. They said that half of the paddy that was planted in Howre this time has been damaged. They all depend on this paddy of Haor. In addition to the whole year’s food of the family, all expenses have to be met from the sale of paddy. But this year, many farmers are not getting enough food for the year. To cultivate the land, labor, fertilizer-seeds, pesticides, irrigation and other ancillary costs are now five to six thousand rupees per acre. For these expenses the farmers have to borrow the rest apart from their own savings. They do this every year.
Shariat Ullah is thinking now, whatever the age, the family has to be run. Work as a laborer for this. He was saying, ‘We don’t remember the joy of Haor in the month of Baisakh. Next year we will go to Nirananda.
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