Farmlands become useless for some crops, fertility declines for others

Soil traders have been indiscriminately extracting topsoil from Chandpur's remote farmlands for the past several months, which, experts say, has been leaving those lands uncultivable for some crops and less fertile for others.

Illegal soil extraction continued during the winter in the district's Faridgonj, Kachua, Hajiganj, Matlab Uttar and Dakshin upazilas, villagers said. In some cases, traders, along with middlemen, convinced farmers in need of cash to sell the soil of their farmlands.

After purchasing per truck of soil at Tk 400-500 from farmers, traders sell it to brick field owners at Tk 1,800-2,000, sources said. The unabated extraction has been ongoing in remote places of Chandpur defying law. According to the "Balumahal and Soil Management (Corrected) Act, 2023", sand and soil extraction is prohibited for farmland, which can sustain damage, or gives rise to apprehension that the land may be damaged due to the extraction.

Faridgonj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Setu Kumar Barua said they conduct drives and fine traders as soon as they are tipped off on soil extraction and warn farmers against selling topsoil from agricultural lands.

In Chandpur Sadar, unabated soil extraction has been ongoing in Raj Rajeshwar, a remote char area about 10 km west of the Meghna River. Soil extraction has also been ongoing in full swing from the farmlands in Matlab North and Dakshin upazilas.

Soil extraction starts at around 8 to 9 PM in the nights at Shaharbazar in No. 4 Paschim Subidpur Union of Faridgonj Upazila and continues till pre-dawn, alleged the people affected by the noise pollution that results from the lifting with excavators.

Using influence, Kana Hanif, Iqbal Hossain and Md Jahangir Hossain have been cutting earth from the cropfields of farmers Sekandar Mollah, Md Jahangir Patwary and others in the area. People who have crop fields nearby say waterlogging occurred on their land as a result of the extractions.

On February 8, a mobile court fined a farmer, Majibur Rahman (53), Tk 100,000 for selling the topsoil of his farmland in Faridgonj and jailed him for a year.

Meanwhile, another mobile court led by assistant commissioner (land) recently fined a trader Tk 50,000 for extracting soil from Harni Durgapur village in Gupter Beel in Faridgonj. The court also seized two excavators from the spot.

Mobarak Hossain, an agricultural expert at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Chandpur, said the cutting of topsoil compromises the fertility of farmlands for some crops while others can not be cultivated at all. Experts said, in a way, the quantity of farmlands has been shrinking in Chandpur district due to the extractions, which is likely to cause a shortfall of annual yields for crops like jute, bottle gourd, pumpkin, mustard, some paddy varieties, potato, sweet potato and other vegetables.

They also said that soil extraction damages the environment and affects ecological balance. According to the Chandpur DAE sources, there is as much as 94,675 hectares of farmland in the district.

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