The croplands have dried up and the seedling is turning yellowish due to absence of rainfall and scorching summer heat, farmers said.

Mohammad Ali, meteorologist of the Rangpur met office, said this year the rainfall is less than the last year. Only 170 millimeters of rainfall was recorded in August this year but it was 600 millimeters in the same period last year, he said.

Inadequate rainfall has led to a near-drought situation in Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts.

Moniruzzaman, deputy director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Rangpur region, said to overcome the situation the farmers have been advised to continue supplementary irrigation by deep tube well or from surface water sources in the affected districts of the region.

The farmers of these areas have been trying to save the transplanted seedlings by irrigation from shallow and deep tube-wells, he added.  

Asaduzzaman Afzal, farmer of Khashbag in the Rangpur city, said it cost Tk 1,950 for irrigation of his one and half acres of paddy field. 

Another farmer Aminur Rahman of Sadar upazila, said he irrigated his two acres of land at a cost of Tk 2000.

Many farmers could not irrigate their lands properly due to the high cost of irrigation and now they are waiting eagerly for heavy rainfall, he added. 

Now farmers are apprehending that the production cost would be up if the drought-like situation continues and they have to give irrigation from deep and shallow tube-wells for more days, sources said. 

DAE sources said current season farmers cultivated Aman paddy on a total 10 lakh hectares of land in eight districts of the Rangpur division.