Flood incurs crop loss of Taka 1323 crore: Razzaque

Agriculture Minister Dr M Abdur Razzaque today said different types of standing crops worth about Taka 1,323 crore have been affected due to the ongoing prolonged flood since June 25.

“Different crops like Aus, Aman, Aman seedbed, vegetables and jute in 37 districts have been submerged due to subsequent first, second and third spell of floods in the last three months”, he said in a press briefing at the ministry’s conference room in the capital.

Different standing crops on 257,148 hectares of land have been submerged while crops on some 158,814 hectares of land have severely been affected due to the flood, he said.

“Over 12.72 lakh farmers also have been affected due to the natural disaster,” he said.

In the monetary form, Dr Razzaque said the Aus crop loss stands at Taka 334 crore, Taka 380 crore for Aman, Taka 235 crore for vegetables and Taka 211 crore for eute crop loss.

In the first spell of flood during the period between June 25 and July 9, the agriculture minister said the estimated crop loss due to the flood was Taka 349 crore, adding that 11 types of different crops on 41,918 hectares of land in 14 districts have been devastated due to that flood.

In the second and third spells of flood from July 11 to August 12, the estimated crop loss was Taka 974 crore. A total of 14 types of standing crops on nearly 1,16,896 hectares of land in 37 districts were affected due to the flood, he added.

The worst affected crops during the flood was the Aus crop on 32,213 hectares of land, Aman on 70,820 hectares of land and aman seedbed on 7,918 hectares of land, the minister elaborated.

To compensate the crop loss due to the flood, Razzaque said the government has taken a plan to provide incentives to the flood affected farmers. The government already has distributed different agricultural inputs of Taka 17.54 crore among 239,631 farmers.

The incentives of nearly Taka 75 crore are now under way, said the minister, adding that a total of 9,29,194 flood affected farmers will get necessary agricultural inputs for cultivating wheat, mustard, peanut, sunflower, khesari, onion, chilli, and tomato at free of cost.

Agriculture Secretary M Nasiruzzaman, Additional Secretary M Arifur Rahman Apu and Director General of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) M Abdul Muyeed, among others, attended the briefing.

Source: BSS

AH