Cyclone Sitrang damages Aman crops, fish farms

Cyclone Sitrang has affected 33,000 hectares of transplanted Aman paddy crop and washed away fish and shrimps mainly in the southern coastal districts, officials said yesterday.  

The storm, which lashed Bangladesh on Tuesday night before weakening, handed losses of Tk 68 crore to aquaculture farmers alone, according to the preliminary estimates of fisheries officials.

Early winter vegetables on 25,000 hectares of land have been affected by the cyclone, with officials saying a portion of the crop might have been damaged too.

"A portion of the affected crops has been damaged and we will able to come to an estimate of losses within a couple of days," said Habibur Rahaman Chowdhury, a director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

"But from my experience, it appears that the cyclone has damaged the Aman paddy crop on 6,000 hectares of land. In terms of paddy, the quantity of losses maybe 21,000 tonnes," he added.

Aman paddy is the second-largest crop after the dry season crop Boro. 

It accounts for 39 per cent of total annual production and its safe harvest is being seen as crucial this year against the backdrop of soaring prices of rice as well as record high prices of wheat flour for a dip in its imports amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

Average retail prices of coarse rice, the cheapest grain, were Tk 50 per kilogramme, up 2 per cent from a month ago, data from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh showed. The prices of fine grain edged up slightly during the same period.

Wheat flour has become nearly 8 per cent costlier for the past month and is selling at Tk 56.5 per kg, on average.

The DAE estimates that farmers have transplanted and sown Aman paddy on 59 lakh hectares of land.

Chowdhury said the cyclone affected Aman paddy crop in 19 coastal districts mainly in Noakhali, Laxmipur and Chandpur under the Chattogram division.

The three coastal divisions accounted for 39 per cent of the total Aman rice area in 2021, according to the estimates of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

DAE officials say a big share of the crop is in the tillering stage in the coastal region.

"There has been lodging of crops while a portion of the Aman area has been submerged because of the damage to the embankments in some areas," Chowdhury said.

Aman area in some districts in the northern region of Bangladesh has been affected too.

Abdur Razzak, a 38-year-old farmer in Gaibandha, said all the Aman crops on his eight bighas of land have been lodged.

"The lodging will cause the yield to decline from what we would have gotten during harvest," said Neon Sheikh, a farmer in Shibganj upazila of Bogura.

The lodging is the permanent displacement of crop stems from their vertical position as a result of stem buckling.

Vegetable growers suffered losses too.

Abdus Subhan, a farmer in Bogura, feared that all the potato seeds he planted on five bighas to grow the tuber three days ago have been waterlogged for heavy rains.

"The seeds will rot," he said.

Rezaul Karim, a banana grower in Gaibandha, says Cyclone Sitrang has completely damaged his banana orchard, which is spread over three bighas.

"I have to count a loss of Tk 100,000."

DAE's Chowdhury said vegetables on 1,200 hectares of land might have been fully damaged by the cyclone.

Many fish farmers in the coastal areas faced losses for the inundation of farms and damage to related infrastructure.

The Department of Fisheries estimates that the cyclone washed away fish on 5,700 hectares area, inflicting losses on 15,527 farmers, said its assistant director Md Nowsher Ali.

"Overall losses are estimated to be Tk 68 crore," he said.

Dhirito Sundar Roy, a fish grower in Batiaghata upazila in Khulna, the southwest coastal division, said the cyclone caused a loss of around six maunds of shrimps and two maunds of fish for him.

Biprodas Bairagi, another fish farmer in the upazila, had a semi-intensive shrimp farm in two ponds, which have been washed away.

The farmer, who borrowed Tk 200,000 from an NGO and Tk 50,000 from a relative, was uncertain about how he would repay the loans.

District Fisheries Officer Joydeb Kumar Paul said Paikgacha and Koyra are two other upazilas in the district that have been affected by the tidal wave resulting from the cyclone.

"Providing incentives to crop producers who suffered losses for the cyclone is under the consideration of the government," added Chowdhury.

Our Barishal correspondent Sushanta Ghosh contributed to the report.