Farmers in different parts of the country have begun boro harvest in the ongoing season amid reports of hailstorm that affected fields in many districts.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Dhaka as well as farmers in many places were, however, upbeat about a bumper harvest this season.
But reports from some areas said their yield would be affected by the recent hailstorms.
If hailstorm and rough weather occur in the next two to three weeks, the yield may be affected, farmers feared.
Farmers in the northern and north-eastern districts also feared they could their production might be affected as they could not irrigate their boro fields timely due to severe power outage and low groundwater level.
The farmers of low-lying haor areas feared early flash floods might damage their crops as the newly constructed crop protection dams in many areas of Sunamganj and Habiganj were not so strong.
DAE officials said their target for bringing 4.8 million hectares of land under boro cultivation this year had exceeded this year.
‘The harvest of Boro, especially BR 28 and a few local varieties, began across the country,’ DAE field
service wing director Anil Chandra Sarkar told New Age.
‘We expect a bumper boro yield this year as the government could ensure different inputs timely and there was no news of major damage in any place of the country,’ he claimed.
Farmer Md Lutfor Rahman of village Borshalghar under Debidwar in Comilla said that he had started harvest of his BR 28 paddy and got a satisfactory production of about 1,000 kilograms per kani (40 decimals).  ‘The harvest will peak within 10 to 15 days in my area but the yield may be affected if there is hailstorm.’
Farmers in different districts including parts of Kurigram, Nilphamari, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Laxmipur, Khulna, Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Kushtia, Pabna and Jhinaidah said the recent hailstorm had damaged their paddy plants and it would result in lower yield than expected.
Farmer Masud Rana, president of Purba Shibbari ICM Peasants’ Club under Ulipur in Kurigram said the recent hailstorm had affected many of the fields in his area.
‘Our yield will be almost half than the normal production as we faced two problems – lack of adequate irrigation from the very beginning of cultivation and the latest hailstorm,’ farmer Palash Mia, general secretary of Karmatpur IPM Club under Habiganj Sadar, told New Age.
Reports received from Sunamganj said boro harvest had begun in different haor areas in the district where about 1.92 lakh hectares of land were brought under boro cultivation. The farmers have been harvesting the local varieties of paddy that had ripened earlier.
Farmer Tokon Biswas of village Bonkira under Jhinaidah Sadar said his field of BR 28 variety of paddy had been damaged in hailstorm and feared that the yield would decrease sharply on his land.
Farmer Abdul Haque of village Haluargaon under Sunamganj Sadar upazila said he had harvested paddy of 25 decimals of land where he cultivated local varieties and the yield was satisfactory.
He said the sheaves of the other paddies had already come out of the plants and feared that if there was early flash flood within two weeks, their fields may be affected.
Sunamganj DAE deputy director SM Afsaruzzaman said around 12,000 hectares of land were cultivated with local varieties in his district and farmers in haor areas cultivated a part of their land with local varieties as they ripe early.