Cold weather persisting for almost three weeks is harming paddy and potato farming in different districts while vegetable growers fear pest attacks amid foggy conditions will damage their produce.
The Barind region, known as the rice bowl of Bangladesh, faces a great catastrophe with its groundwater levels depleting fast. In this water-stressed region, irrigation tubewells have now become a tool for the people with political clout to exploit farmers. Santal farmers killed selves being deprived of irrigation water
Barind Farmers: At mercy of ‘water lords’ Asia News Network (ANN) is the leading regional alliance of news titles striving to bring the region closer, through an active sharing of editorial content on happenings in the region.
On April 9, Mukul Soren, a Santal farmer in Rajshahi, drank pesticide in a suicide attempt over the same irrigation deep tubewell that allegedly led to the suicide of two farmers, also Santals, last year.