The farmers in water-stressed eight upazilas in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, and Naogaon districts are worried as the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority will not allow to cultivate boro on all of their lands under its deep tube-well coverage in the upcoming season for severe groundwater depletion due to unplanned and excessive extraction for decades.
They feared that the farmers in the upazilas would suffer losses if they failed to cultivate Boro paddy on all their lands.
These areas fall in the High Barind Tract area where the BMDA operates 3,588 deep tube-wells to irrigate 95,000 hectares of land and, of them, 1,960 tube-wells that cover 58,000 hectares are facing serious groundwater level depilation.
The government agency has recently formulated a policy where farmers, under its deep-tube well schemes, will be allowed to cultivate boro paddy on around 18,000 hectares, out of the 58,000 hectares, in these eight upazilas in the upcoming boro season between February 15 and May 15.
Officials said that they were requesting farmers not to cultivate boro in the areas covered by half of the 1,960 deep tube-wells in the seriously water-stressed areas as it would be risky to extract groundwater for irrigation there.
They said that they would allow the cultivation on around 18,000 hectares of land covered by the remaining half deep tube-wells, with half of their capacity.
Acknowledging the matter, BMDA additional chief engineer Jahangir Alam Khan said that they were requesting farmers to grow other crops like maize and wheat on the rest of the land, as boro cultivation required water five times more than that needed to cultivate wheat.
According to a study, conducted by the Institute of Water Modeling, a government agency, in 25 upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon, and Chapainawabganj districts between 2018 and 2021, the average groundwater level in the region, which is geographically slightly elevated compared to other parts of the country, dropped to 18 metres from 8 metres in the past three decades.
In some specific areas like Gomastapur upazila, the average groundwater level dropped to 46.87 metres in 2021 from 21 meters in 1990.
鈥楩armers prepared seedbeds two months ago, and seedlings are now ready for transplantation, but the BMDA is now saying that we will not be able to cultivate on all our lands,鈥� said Md Mamun, a farmer in village Kalidighi under Godagari upazila in Rajshahi.
He added that BMDA officials instructed him to plant wheat on six of his eight bighas of land though it was not the right season for cultivating wheat.
Rafiqul Islam, a farmer from Puravara village, took 12 bighas of land on lease by paying Tk 1.68 lakh but he was told to cultivate Boro on only two bighas of land. 鈥業t is too late to cultivate wheat or maize,鈥� he said and added that many lands in his area might remain uncultivated for want of irrigation due to water scarcity.
鈥業 cultivate Boro paddy on my one bigha of land every year to feed my family. Now I will have to buy paddy from the market as, according to the new BMDA policy, I will be able to cultivate Boro once every four years,鈥� said Md Awal from Shekherpara village.
Awal said that he generally got 25 to 30 mounds (40 kg each mound) of paddy from his land but, in the case of wheat cultivation, he would get only eight to 10 mounds of wheat. 鈥業t is not financially feasible.鈥�
Bappi Mardi, a marginal farmer from Godagari upazila, said that the marginal and poor farmers would be affected most due to the new BMDA policy.
鈥業nfluential people will install tube-wells at their cost and will cultivate Boro, but we will not be able to do so,鈥� he said.
Motaleb Hossain, acting additional director at the Department of Agricultural Extension in Rajshahi, said that private tube-wells and low-lift pumps were installed in the region over the years by influential individuals.
Over 1,33,000 shallow tube-wells and 7,594 low-lift pumps have been installed so far in the region, he added.