Crop on 65,000 hectares under water in Patuakhali

Torrential rain coupled with the recent unusual high tide inundated about 65,000 hectares of croplands in Patuakhali, where about 200 millimetres of rainfall was recorded in the last seven days.

The Water Development Board (WDB) said the water in local rivers was flowing 74 centimetres above the danger level.

According to the Patuakhali Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), seasonal vegetables as well as Aus and Aman rice were cultivated on a total of 1.47 lakh hectares of land in the district this year.

Out of 89,600 hectares of land where Aman was planted, 32,015 hectares were submerged in floodwaters, caused by incessant rain and high tide over the last seven days.

Different varieties of Aus including high-yielding varieties were cultivated on 38,360 hectares of land, but the crop on 24,918 hectares has gone under water.

Summer vegetables were planted on 3,175 hectares and those on 2,630 hectares are now inundated in floodwaters.

High tides are a natural phenomenon that occurs during the ascent of the new moon, but the tide this time has been unusually high, said officials at the WDB in Patuakhali.

Hridayeshwar Dutta, deputy director of DAE in Patuakhali, said the unusual flooding is a result of incessant rain caused by monsoon winds as well as the rise in water level due to the tidal water caused by the new moon.

Aman farmers might be able to recover the losses by replanting the crop, but summer vegetable farmers may not be able to recover the damage, he added.

Farmer Rafiqul Islam, from Kismat Moukaran village in Laukathi union of Sadar upazila, said he cultivated seasonal vegetables on 40 decimals of land this year and he was able to harvest some of those for only two days, before his vegetable field got flooded.

With water covering the field for an entire week, all the vegetables underneath have started to rot, he said frustratingly.

Sobhan Khan of the same village spent Tk 13,000 to plant summer vegetables on 15 decimals of land. But all his investment -- the money and the labour -- is likely to go in vain, he lamented.