The farmers have been moving here and there with their harvested jute on carts for rotting, find no adequate water in the nearest river, irrigation canals of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) or other ditches in Jhenaidah.
The farmers are worried as they were getting worst quality jute fibre in the season. It would not ensure optimum price of the golden fibre, they feared.
On the other hand, the officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Jhenaidah said that they were hopeful of some rainfall in the season as forecast by the meteorological department.
Farmer Abul Hossain of Sadhuhati area in Hakimpur union of Shailkupa Upazila in Jhenaidah was moving here and there with a jute laden bullock driven cart said he had started harvesting the jute and moved for three kilometers to rot his jute at a nearby waterbody.
Farmer Rabin Biswas of Langalbandh area echoed the same and said that they were very busy to rot jute as there was severe crisis of water in the waterbodies due to inadequate rainfall in the season. Alternative jute rotting method might remove the sufferings of the people as well as improve the quality of fibre, they said.
According to a source related to the office of the deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Khamarbari of Jhenaidah said that they had set a target to produce 58,879 tones or 315,588 bales of jute fibre from a total of 23,800 hectares of land in the season. Average yield of the fibre was expected for 2.474 tones on each hectare. However, the farmers had reduced the area of operation in the season. They had covered 21,446 hectares which was almost 90 percent of the farming target. The people of Jhenaidah have witnessed about 120 millimeter of rainfall in the first 14 days of the current month which was too inadequate to rot the jute in river or other waterbodies, the sources said.
The DAE sources further said the jute farming is not a cost-friendly farming due to excessive labour cost and acute crisis of water during the rotting season. A good number of farmers had reduced the area of jute farming. Rather, they had leaned towards chilli, vegetables and betel leaf farming for the last couple of years.
Sasti Chandra Roy, DAE deputy director in Khamarbri of Jhenaidah, said that they were not quite hopeless as there is every possibility of rainfall in coming days. Regarding ribbon retting (a method for rotting jute plants with less water) system of jute the DAE official said usually the quality of jute fiber might be ensured if the water bodies are filled with adequate water. Here, the ribbon retting might help for the time being as an alternative way if there was no rainfall during the monsoon. DAE deputy director also put emphasis on ribbon retting as there was no enough rainfall during the monsoon for the last couple of years.
