The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Barisal

Around 10,543 hectares of arable land out of 1,86,473 hectares in the district are lying uncultivated since long, causing an approximate loss of nearly Tk 25 crore annually. Sources at the local Agriculture Extension Department said ownership conflict, lack of capital, equipment and shortage of irrigation facilities are the major reasons for not using these lands for growing crops.

Besides, some 3,729 hectares of land, which is about 2 percent of the total croplands in the district, cannot be cultivated due to demarcation problem.

Nuruddin Ahmed, in charge of the local office of Bureau of Statistics, said the trend of setting aisles for demarcation is increasing as larger land plots are getting smaller day by day due to change of ownership and distribution among the heirs, shrinking the arable land.

Besides, agriculture officials said, many farmers are unwilling to cultivate their croplands in the dry session for lack of adequate irrigation facilities.

Recognizing the problem, M Mahbubul Islam, executive engineer (Irrigation) of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation of the region, said in a bid to minimize the problem, they have installed 15 irrigation pumps in the region for boro cultivation. Apart from the irrigation problem, many small farmers, including 79,848 landless ones, cannot cultivate land for lack of capital. When contacted, a senior agriculture officials said, the present land demarcation system needs to be replaced with scientific one in addition to changing the conventional cultivation methods to boost agricultural production.