Tanore upazila farmers have been harvesting Boro Paddy from Beel Kumari, the biggest body of water in the Rajshahi district, for the past week, despite the intense heat and sun. Farmers told me that the heat wave had accelerated the paddy's ripening process. Furthermore, farmers were attempting to harvest the paddy as soon as possible while evading natural calamities like storms and hailstorms, which frequently happen during this month of Baishakh. After visiting villages surrounding Beel Kumari, it was noticed farmers of villages Gubirpara, Amsho, Jeol, Buruj, Talanda and Kamargaon were busy reaping Boro paddy from their fields. Farmers said almost 80 per cent of the Paddy of the Beel Kumari has already been ripened. Tanore Upazila Agriculture Office sources informed that, as against the target of cultivating Boro Paddy in 12,400 hectares of land, the actual cultivation was in 12,260 hectares, and the target of production of Paddy has been estimated at nearly 20 lakh metric tonnes. Sources said, the production of Paddy was better this year and there were no shortages of farm labourers in the upazila. The officials of the Agriculture Extension Department at Tanore informed us that if the weather remained favourable, the production of Boro paddy would surpass the target this season. Farmer Toriqul of Amsho village informed me that almost all the paddy in the upazila is getting ripened. Many farmers have started to cut and thrash the paddy. The production of paddy is also satisfactory this year. Farmer Liakat Ali of Talanda village informed me that he has cultivated Boro paddy on nearly 20 bighas of land, and the paddy of 15 bighas has already been reaped.
He added that by thrashing the paddy on two bighas of land, he got 65 maunds of paddy. However, he mentioned that the paddy, which was cultivated in potato fields, would take a longer time—one or two more weeks—to reap. He hoped for a bumper production of Boro paddy this season if the weather remained favourable.
Saifullah Ahmed, Tanore Agriculture Officer, informed us that the reaping of paddy started in all fields of the upazila in full swing. There was no shortage of labourers this year. The heatwave and sunshine helped the paddy grow smoothly. He hoped for a bumper production of paddy this year.
