Agriculture extension department sources say at least 106,000 farmers from four upazilas of Kushtia and Chuadanga can cultivate Boro crops with water from the GK Irrigation Project. Farmers say that Boro crop requires the most irrigation. In this, irrigation is required from preparation of land till emergence of seedlings. Sometimes the land has to be irrigated twice a day. They were preparing to grow the crop since January, but after the water supply started, it suddenly stopped, due to which they had to face problems.
Sheikh Raju, a farmer from Batoil in Kushtia Sadar, has been growing rice for more than 15 years. This time also he had prepared to grow paddy on one and a half bigha land. However, due to lack of water he has not been able to sow the crop yet.
Abdullah, a farmer from the same area, also told about his problems on 28 February. He said, 15 days ago, paddy was sown on 2 bighas of land, but water is not available. They have to spend a huge amount on irrigation through deep tube wells.
According to the Chuadanga Agricultural Extension Department, Alamdanga has 6,500 hectares of land under the GK project. Out of this, 2,470 hectares of land is still lying barren. Badrul Alam, a farmer of Dauki village of Alamdanga, had sown paddy in six bighas of land when water came in the canal. He said, “No, the paddy is drying up and getting destroyed due to lack of water.”