SM Humayun Kabir, Cox’s Bazar
The role that agriculture plays in the country’s national income and economy is directly related to the country’s farmers. Farmers have sustained our existence by providing essential food. If farmers can produce more, national development will accelerate.
Food grain production is also being disrupted in various ways due to the impact of natural changes, including floods and droughts. Despite all this, the progress of agriculture has not stopped. Deputy Assistant Agriculture Officer Shelly Akhtar is providing round-the-clock advisory support and working at the field level to all the farmers of Kawarkhop Union in Ramu Upazila of Cox’s Bazar to increase agricultural production and solve various agricultural problems.
Besides, as a woman, she has not stopped, going from village to village to encourage farmers to switch from environmentally destructive tobacco farming to rice farming. Recently, many farmers have abandoned tobacco farming and refocused on rice cultivation. A field inspection revealed that instead of cultivating rice continuously for three decades, farmers in various unions including Kawarkhop, Gorjania and Kawarkhop in the upazila have been cultivating environmentally destructive tobacco in the hope of huge profits.
This allows tobacco cultivation to continue on most lands during every dry season. The widespread use of poisons in tobacco cultivation and the burning of wood as fuel for tobacco cultivation cause considerable damage to the environment. Deputy Assistant Agricultural Officer Shelly Akhter said, “The farmers of Kawarkhop Union are now much more aware than before.” They are doing technology-based farming. Now the use of chemical fertilizers has been reduced and the use of organic fertilizers has increased, and insect control in various vegetables is increasing through organic methods. Farmers are now cultivating hybrid and high-yielding varieties of rice and vegetables, which is one of the reasons for the increase in crop production.
Regarding the field problems, he said, “The main problem in the field is the labor shortage, there is a high labor shortage. In this case, if we can bring agriculture to mechanized agriculture, then this problem can be largely eliminated. We are trying to motivate farmers and bring them to modern mechanized agriculture, but this is a matter of time.”