Farmers worried about cold injury on seedling beds

From New Age
Boro cultivation began across the country with farmers in many places expressing their worry that the seedling beds could suffer from cold injuries.
Farmers in the districts in northern Rangpur division as well as Jhinaidah and Manikganj said a good number of seedbeds in their areas had become yellowish due to fog and severe cold weather. The young plants aged below two weeks were the worst affected, they said.
However, officials of the department of agriculture extension in Dhaka said they were yet to receive any information about cold injury on seedling beds.
‘We have targeted to bring 47.8 lakh hectares of land under Boro cultivation and it would need 2.5 lakh hectares of seedling beds,’ DAE field service wing director Md Eunus Ali told New Age.
He said that the department was not at all worried about seedling beds as the target of 2.5 lakh hectares had already crossed and the government ensured supply of quality seeds.
DAE field level officials have been asked to advise farmers what to do in case of foggy weather and cold, he added.
‘Like most of the farmers in our area, all my seedling beds have been damaged in fog and cold injury… all the seedlings turned yellowish and gradually died,’ Md Jamat Ali, a farmer in Shibalay upazila in Manikganj said.
Md Mamun-ur-Rashid, deputy director of Manikganj DAE, claimed the affected seedbeds were very few and they had been trying to recover from the situation by advising the farmers what to do to tackle the situation.
Md Solaiman, a farmer of Ajitmari upazila in Lalmonirhat, said seedling bed damage will increase the cost of his boro production as he will have to buy seedlings from the market.
DAE officials in Dhaka said they have been advising the farmers to cover the seedling beds with polythene, pouring water in the bed in the evening and releasing it in the morning, applying muriate of potash (MOP) fertilizer or a mixture of water and cow-dung in the seedling beds to save the young plants.
DAE has set the target to produce 187 lakh tonnes of rice in the ongoing Boro season. Earlier, farmers got three consecutive bumper productions – 178 lakh tonnes in 2009, 183 lakh tonnes in 2010 and around 186 lakh tonnes in 2011.
New Age correspondent in Rangpur reported that farmers of eight districts in Rangpur division feared a reduction in boro output in the current season due to delayed transplantation for repeated cold wave coupled with dense fog that damaged a large portion of seedbeds.
The seedlings meant for transplantation have been turning yellowish due to the hostile weather, they said, adding that spraying pesticides did not help them much.
‘I managed to procure quality boro seeds at high prices and prepared seedbeds on 30 decimal of lands, but repeated cold wave and dense fog damaged the seedbeds. So, I have to take alternative ways to make up the damage that will cost me more time and additional investment, said farmer Alam Miah under Pirgacha  upazilla in Rangpur.
Rangpur regional DAE officials said about 25 per cent of 38,706 hectares of seedling beds were affected by cold injury in eight districts of Rangpur division in the current season.
Kali Das  Devnath, additional director of Rangpur regional DAE, said cold wave usually hits the northern region in mid-January when the plants become matured enough to resist the attack but this year the chilly weather hit earlier and caused damage to tender plants.
The farmers of the region prefer BRRI dhan-28 and 29 for boro farming which do not have cold tolerant characteristics and so the seedbeds have been damaged, Devnath added.