Farmers in Haor area of Kishoreganj are worried. ‘Neck
Blast’ has become a nightmare in Boro Paddy, one of their livelihoods. In this
disease, after the stalks of paddy come out, they become dry and sticky. The
disease has been seen for about a week after eating early variety BR-28 paddy.
The farmers also complained that they did not get timely advice from the
agriculture officials to control this terrible disease of paddy.
According to the District Agriculture Extension Department, the target for boro cultivation in 13 upazilas of Kishoreganj this year has been set at 1 lakh 64 thousand 485 hectares of land. The target has been set at 1 lakh 67 thousand 190 hectares. Of these, Boro has been cultivated in 1 lakh 3 thousand 940 hectares of land in the haor area alone. And upstream areas outside the Haor have been cultivated in 63,250 hectares of land.
It can be seen on the ground that the grain of Boro paddy is swaying with the wind in the field in Haor now, the dream of the farmer is swaying. Neck blast is interfering with that dream. Some of the affected farmers have said that it is not possible to protect the paddy of the infected land in any way. It can be seen in a few areas including Elangjuri, Baribari, Sohela, Itna Bara Haor of Itna upazila inhabited by Haors of Kishoreganj.
Farmers say at least one-fourth of the BR-28 paddy land is being affected by Neck blasts. Hafiz Uddin, a farmer from Elangjuri area, said he has cultivated BR-28 variety of paddy in six acres of land this time. In the last one week, about one and a half acres of paddy land has dried up due to neck blast disease. With this he lost his way. He is also worried about the rest of the paddy.
Siraj Mia of the same area cultivated Boro on two acres of land. However, in the last one week, about half of his paddy land has been destroyed in the Neck blast. The farmer is devastated. Another farmer, Shafiqul Islam, said more than an acre of his four acres of paddy had been affected by Neck blast disease.
At least 10-15 farmers said that Neck blast disease has spread in a week. Due to the transmission of this disease, the stalks of the paddy plant are broken first, the rice is completely dried and chewed, the leaves of the paddy plant are also dried. Hundreds of farmers in the district are facing this loss. They complained that if the agriculture officials had given them timely advice, they might not have suffered such losses.
Saiful Alam, deputy director of Kishoreganj Agriculture Extension Department, said that according to the accounts of Itna, Mithamin, Ashtagram and Nikli upazilas of Haoranchal, they have received information that about 10 hectares of land has been affected by Neck blast.
The agriculture official said, "Neck blast disease has spread in some areas due to adverse weather conditions. However, we are advising the farmers to cure this disease. It is recommended to spray the necessary pesticides. However, we discourage farmers from cultivating BRI-28 paddy. Because, this variety has become very old. Now we advise farmers to cultivate BRRI-88 variety of paddy. But in order to harvest in advance, the farmers cultivate BR-28 without consulting the agriculture department. In this paddy Neck blast is more. But hopefully, the problem of Neck blast will go away quickly. Farmers should not panic about this. '
|Source: Online/SZK
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