Agricultural land for growing paddy is decreasing rapidly in the district as many farmers have started using the land for different purposes.

They are converting the land into ponds, fish enclosures and tree gardens for earning more profit, some farmers of Bagri in Rajapur upazila said.  

“Most of the farmers in the district are landless and work on other people's land, so they have nothing to say about conversion of the land by the owners,” said Abu Bakar Siddik, deputy director of Jhalakathi Department of Agriculture Extension. 

There are 15,942 landless farmers and 48,223 farmers with little land out of 1,03,460 farmers,  and 54,000 hectares of cultivable land in the district, Siddik added.

“I used to grow paddy on five acres of land four years ago, but the owner has converted four acres of the land for other purposes,” said Hemayet, a landless farmer of Angaria.

“I am shocked seeing the transformation of the lands,” said Md Riaj Ullah Bahadur, upazila agriculture officer in Rajapur.

“We are compelled to stop cultivating paddy as it often brings loss,” said Khokon, a farmer in Indrapasha, adding that he was going to plant trees on paddy fields for more profit.

“Farmers are now cultivating crops other than paddy as paddy brings less profit or even loss,” said farmer Rafiqul Islam of Gabkhan in Jhalakathi Sadar.

About two percent of agricultural land is being lost every year in the district, according to the district agriculture office.

“Converting land and planting woody trees is a great threat for the agriculture, food safety and the land itself,” said Md. Jamal Uddin, chairman of the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences of Barisal University. 

“We have very limited land, so we should give emphasis on saving the land from any conversion,” he said, adding that if the land changing continues, agricultural production will face a great crisis.

There is a policy that says no one can change the nature of agricultural land, but it is hardly followed, said Md Zakir Hossain, ADC (revenue) of Jhalakathi.