During a visit to Pirgachha in Rangpur yesterday The Daily Star correspondents found the farmers busy harvesting paddy from the fields. The farmers said the harvest in the low lands began earlier as the seeds were sown in early Ashar (mid June).

The harvest in the fields of char areas would complete by the next two weeks, said the farmers who were harvesting the crops, which survived the July-August floods and heavy rainfalls that caused huge damage to crops in the char areas.

They said the production would be much lower this year as they have found a huge amount of sterile in the harvested paddy. "Floods, rains and storms severely damaged the Aman crops this year," said Anwar Hossain of Shivdev village in Pirgachha.

He said the crops in more than 25 percent char areas were completely damaged and the production in rest of the fields were hampered by the flooding. As a result, this year's Aman production might be hardly 50 percent of last year's production.

The farmers said they are getting very little quantity of paddy in the ongoing harvest.

According to local agriculture extension officials, the production of Aman crops would be 20 to 30 percent lower this year because of floods, storms and pest attack.

The full harvest of paddy in the high lands of the region is likely to begin after two weeks. The government has fixed a production target of 2.14 lakh tonnes from high yielding and local varieties of Aman in Rangpur district this year.

The early Aman crops would not much benefit the day labourers in the acute poverty-striken districts as their wages for harvesting are extremely low. "We get only Tk 40 a day for cutting and carrying paddy from the fields," said Asgar Ali Mondal of Goraipar char.

In some areas the agricultural labourers get even Tk 20 for a whole day.

Hundreds of young people were seen sitting idle at different road crossings. Some of them told these correspondents that they would go to Dhaka and Chittagong for job just after Eid as a severe joblessness is prevailing in the entire northern region.

"There is no mills or factories in the district. So we have no option but to go elsewhere in search of job," said Ansar Uddin of Adam village.

The rickshawpullers were also seen waiting for passengers for long. A rickshawpuller in the area cannot earn more than Tk 30 a day. "I have been waiting since the morning but did not get any passenger," said Rafiqul Islam at Pautana crossing yesterday noon.

Talking to The Daily Star, many rickshawpullers like Belal, Abdur Rashid, Shahidul Islam and Mohammad Yusuf said their earning is not sufficient but they do not get relief materials as they are not enlisted by the union parishads.

"We cannot survive with the money we earn by pulling rickshaws," Rafiqul Islam said. He alleged that the names of rickshawpullers were not included the list of VGF (vulnerable group feeding) card programme.