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Agriculture Minister Dr. Mohammad Abdur Razzak, Picture: Collected[/caption]
According to Agriculture Minister Dr. Mohammad Abdur Razzak, the floods, caused by heavy rains, downpours and rising river levels, have initially damaged crops worth about Tk. 349 crore. He made the remarks at a meeting with agriculture officials at the ministry's conference room on Monday (July 20th) to discuss flood damage and what needs to be done to overcome it.
Dr. Razzak said, "If the flood situation does not deteriorate further, the damage will be overcome in the programs taken by the Ministry of Agriculture. At the same time, it will be possible to achieve the target of Aman."
The agriculture minister said the first phase of floods from June 25 to July 9 affected about 76,210 hectares of land in 11 crops in 14 districts. Of which 41,918 hectares of land was completely damaged.
The districts are Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Bogra, Sirajganj, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Rajshahi, Manikganj, Faridpur and Tangail. The total number of affected farmers in these areas is 3 lakh 44 thousand people.
In the second phase from 11 July to 19 July, Manikganj, Bogra, Tangail, Natore, Naogaon, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Jamalpur, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Faridpur, Madaripur, Rajbari, Shariatpur, Mymensingh, Sirajganj, Pabna, Sherpur , Brahmanbaria About 83,000 hectares of 13 crops have been affected in 26 districts, including the previous 14. The amount of crop damaged has not yet been determined.
Dr. Abdur Razzak said, "The Ministry of Agriculture has taken several steps to address the damage. Among these production of community based Ropa Aman paddy saplings worth around Tk. 21.5 crore on farmers' land in the most affected districts and free distribution among affected marginal and small farmers, production of transplanted aman paddy saplings, production of Nabi variety aman saplings in trays for transplanting through rice transplanters at a cost of Tk. 54 lakhs and free distribution among affected marginal and small farmers. Money, seeds and fertilizer will be given.
Dr. Abdur Razzak said, “The Ministry of Agriculture has taken several steps to address the damage. Among these, production of community based Ropa Aman paddy saplings at a cost of around Tk 2.15 crore and free distribution among the affected marginal and small farmers in the most affected districts, production of Ropa Aman paddy saplings in floating beds at a cost of Taka 60 lakh, planting through rice transplanters at a cost of Rs 54 lakh. Therefore, production of Nabi variety Aman saplings in trays and free distribution among the affected marginal and small farmers and if cultivation of Aman in the affected areas is not possible, mash kalai seeds and fertilizers worth around Tk. 3 crore 82 lakh will be given to 50,000 farmers.
Source: Online/SZK
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