The ongoing flood situation across the country may affect the production of Aus and Aman rice, winter vegetables and other crops.

More than 62,000 hectares of land have been inundated due to heavy rainfall and onrush of upstream water from India  over the last three weeks, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).
Most of the crops on the inundated lands will be damaged if the floodwater would not recede quickly, said agriculture experts.

Standing Aush rice, Aman rice, Aman rice seedbed, jute, vegetables, spices, banana, sugarcane and betel leaf are the worst victims of the flood.

Aman and Aus rice seasons are the two major sources for the staple crops after Boro season. Aman comprises 37-38 per cent and Aus 7.0-8.0 per cent of the total rice output in the country.

The government has targeted to produce 3.64 million tonnes of Aush from 1.32 million hectares of lands during the April-September period.

The target is 15.37million tonnes from 5.89 million hectares of land for the Aman season (June to December).

But the ongoing flood has been posing threats to rice output prospects.
A total of 13.066 million tones winter vegetables were grown on 0.5769 million hectares of land last year. This year the target is yet to be estimated but the output is likely to be lower than last year.

The flood has been inundating fresh areas almost every day for the last seven days as major rivers were flowing over the danger mark.

Dr. Alhaz Uddin Ahmed, director of Field Service Wing at DAE, said they are yet to estimate the total crop damage as the flood is still continuing.

“Till now more than 62,000 hectares of crops land in Northern was inundated. We will estimate the damage after receding of floodwater,” he said.

Meanwhile, standing crops on 32,992 hectares of land were inundated by floodwater in all five districts in Rangpur division.

The submerged crops included standing Aush rice on 8,998 hectares of land, Aman rice on 47 hectares, Aman rice seedbed on 5,999 hectares, jute on 14,192 hectares, vegetables on 3,116 hectares, spices on 547 hectares, Banana on 170 hectares, sugarcane on 70 hectares and betel leaf on three hectares of land.

Of them, standing crops on 105 hectares of land have been submerged in Rangpur, on 12,803 hectares in Gaibandha, on 19,638 hectares in Kurigram, on 325 hectares in Nilphamari and on 121 hectares of land in Nilphamari districts.

The submerged crops on 32,992 hectares of land made up over 21.37 per cent of total standing crops on 1,54,353 hectares of land in these five districts of the agriculture region.

Officials of DAE and other agriculture-related departments, organisations and institutions are visiting the affected areas and suggesting ways to affected farmers to overcome the situation after the recession of floodwaters from their submerged croplands.

All of the submerged standing crops will not be damaged and some of those will suffer partial damage if floodwaters receded in three to four days.