Rehabilitating Haor farmers
The step of the government to rehabilitate the affected people of Haor region in Netrokona district is going on the right direction. During her Thursdays visit, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared that fresh agricultural loan for flood affected farmers would be provided at 4.5 per cent interest rate. It is expected that that the government would not make difficult disbursing of agro loans to farmers with this rate that, for many, would seem still very high.
Moreover, the government completely waived all interest on loans that were already taken by the affected people. The suspension of the pay-back of the current loan until next crop would certainly ease the burden of people who have lost their crops in the recent floods.
The Prime Minister also made the commitment that the government would also provide support for diversification of their occupation. Moreover, the VGF activities would continue in the haor areas apart from OMS programme. She revealed that the government has taken arrangement to reach VGF rice to union level at the government cost. All these programmes would go a long way to lift the Haor people from their present abject condition. Providing support for occupation is very important and it is expected that the government would deliver on this very carefully. Many farmers lost everything including their Boro paddy as the flash floods caused by mid-Aprils torrential rain swept the region. The governments official records say that a total of 86 unions of 10 upazilas were affected and crops of 28,425 hectors of land were fully damaged, affecting more than 1.65 lakh farmers in Netrakona district.
This large number of people would not have been affected, had some embankments were built strongly. Obviously, there was fault in the governments works in this regard. During the time of floods, farmers on their own tried to protect embankments of different haors, Shonir Haor for example, but their efforts went in vein. Even at this stage, if the governments relevant departments extended their support to the farmers, their loss of crops, livelihoods and habitats could be minimized.
There is no doubt that during the time of floods neglect was shown to the affected people. But it is expected that the government would do everything to rehabilitate the affected people. The government has to be very cautious that poor people of the region should not have to move to cities and towns and become refugees. For protecting crops in the region from future floods, the relevant embankments have to be rebuilt. Make sure that they are now enough and strong.
