Farmers in haor areas of Sunamganj and Habiganj are worried as they cannot prepare seedbeds for Boro production season due to a slow recession of water.
Only a handful of farmers have managed to prepare their seedbeds while the rest are yet to be able to do it, they say.
Farmers say they now run the risk of falling behind the season by a fortnight or so.
As usual, farmers start preparing seed beds by mid-November and it takes about a month to get seedlings for Boro cultivation, but the process is getting late this year due to late recession of water, says Mazumder Md Ilias, deputy director at the Department of Agriculture Extension, Divisional Office, Sylhet.
The DAE has targeted to bring about 475,528 hectares of land in Sylhet division under Boro farming this year.
As well as hampering the resumption of Boro production season, the slow recession of water is delaying the reconstruction of crop protection embankments in haor areas.
As per a government decision, selections of crop protection embankment reconstruction schemes and formations of project implementation committees are to be complete by November 30, but both may be late this year due to the slow water recession, says a WDB official, seeking anonymity.
As per WDB rules, works on the crop protection schemes are to be complete between December 15 and February 28, but that does not happen any year causing a deadline extension.
Contacted, Sylhet Regional WDB Chief Engineer Md Shahidul Islam admits a delay in starting reconstruction of crop protection embankments.
He says projection implementation committees are responsible for reconstructing crop protection embankments.
The deputy commissioner heads the district committee and WDB executive engineer serves as member-secretary of the district level committees to oversee projects.
Mr Islam, the executive engineer, points out that the government has an allocation of Tk 1.28 billion against reconstructions of crop protection embankments in the region.
As for Sunamganj, which has the highest number of haors in the region, he says a total of Tk 680 million has already been sanctioned for reconstructing crop protection embankments in the district this year.
