By Audity Falguni
'Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The nightmare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.'
: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Renowned poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge had depicted death as a woman with leprosy, white skin, gold locks and red lips in his forever immortal poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' Though not sure if 'Death' really looks like a woman or a man, we witness a surge of more than 250 deaths of children in a sudden outbreak of measles since last week of March till today.
A disease which was eliminated from Bangladesh about one to two decades ago, seems to spread over around 60 districts of Bangladesh for sheer negligence on part of the Department of Health officials and the concerned authorities in the last one and half years.
But today I am not going to write any article on measles outbreak as I have already penned one on this issue for the Bengali section of BD Voice. Let us rather have a glance on the plight of our farmers in this terribly hot and humid summer.
Actually, summer is never a 'happy thing' to enjoy in Bangladesh. Eminent poet Jashimuddin, in his 'The Field of the Embrodered Quilt (Nakshi Kanthar Math, translated by E.M.Milford)' narrates the folk rituals of Bengal in the early twentieth century to implore the heavens for sending a little bit of clouds cum rain to the parched paddy fields of our rural landscape. We find the mention of an adolescent sage Rishyashringa who was invited by the King of Anga Kingdom in the first millennium BCE to perform fire-sacrifice (Yajna) to end a decade long drought in his kingdom.
Hence the yearning for rain and cloud during a blazing summer is nothing that much new in our South Asia culture. But this year the summer seems cruel beyond narration as the fuel scarcity for the US-Iran war trickles through the villages and mofussils of Bangladesh. Hundreds and thousands of farmers go through immense hardships to ensure a little diesel for irrigation in this Boro (paddy) season.
According to the sources in the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), the irrigation season in our country continues from December to May. Bangladesh possesses more than 2.13 million diesel-powered agricultural machines with deep and shallow tube wells, low-lift pumps, power tillers, tractors, combine harvesters, threshers, and other agricultural equipments.
Of those, there are 10,726 combine harvesters and approximately 496,805 threshing and related machines. During the irrigation season, total diesel requirement for irrigation and agricultural machinery is no less than near about 1.25 million tons.
The Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) calculates that irrigation machinery alone needs about 760,000 tons of fuel during the 6-months' long irrigation season (i.e.May to December of every year).
A global war that impedes our diesel supply
Meantime, the unleashing of a global war that involves the super powers like USA, Israel and Iran (supported by Russia, China and North Korea), oil supply chains have been seriously dismantled, specially through the Strait of Hormuz, the lifeline for world’s energy transport. It just accelerates the diesel shortages which results in long rows of farmers before filling stations, which too seem to stay shut down for longer periods of the day as the diesel supplies is not steady or consistent.
According to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, our needs for diesel per year is approximately 4.5 million tons and present reserve is only 122,660 tons. The daily consumption need for diesel in the irrigation period is around 12,000 tons though per day supply is merely 11,500 tons which cannot fulfil even the everyday need of the farmers. Per month diesel demand during the irrigation period is near about 209,000 tons or 7,000 tons per day, depending on rainfall (Source: Prothom Alo English, April 4, 2026: Fuel crisis: Farmers struggling to access oil for agricultural machineries | Prothom Alo).
So the scenario is bleak enough to observe thousands of irrigation pumps in non-functioning situation in our major agricultural areas of the country, including including Rajshahi, Cox's Bazar, Barishal, Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Rangpur, Khulna, Cumilla, Munshiganj and Gopalganj etc.
This 'bolt from the blue' comes to us at a touchy season for boro cultivation, when steady irrigation is a must for the formation of paddy grains.
For example, in Rajshahi, only 8 to 10 of the region's 46 fuel stations are supplying diesel on a daily basis, triggering long queues of farmers—some waiting overnight. Many report paying 15 to 20 taka above the government-set price per litre in informal markets, according to an online news report.
In Cox's Bazar, more than 4,200 irrigation pumps are reportedly out of operation due to diesel shortages. With nearly 70 per cent of irrigation systems dependent on diesel, around 25,000 hectares of farmland are facing inadequate water supply, the report further adds (Bangladesh Boro Harvest Crisis 2026 | Diesel & Power Shortage).
Same remains the situation in Barisahal where even 500,000 litres of daily fuel demand cannot be fulfilled by around 74,000 diesel-powered irrigation pumps. Peasants wait in long rows before fuel stations since early in the morning in Jamalpur to collect a little amount of diesel. Or situation in Rangpur seems to be tense as vast tracts of arable lands seem to be scorched under immense sun rays as well as lack of irrigation. Authorities caution that production targets for more than 132,000 hectares of boro cultivation may not be attained if fuel supplies are not ensured on a quick basis.
While rice is the staple diet of around 175 million of Bangladeshis and late March to April is a critical time for sowing the major summer crop (i.e., the boro paddy), Bangladesh largely depends on imports for 80% of its refined energy demands with the lion’s share of it arriving from the Middle East.
Though our newly elected government reportedly has undertaken some steps to preserve energy and find out new sources of fuel, the peasants complain of their everyday struggle to local and global media outlets.
And although the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) confirms that a target was fixed to cultivate Boro rice at approximately 6,52,000 hectares of land this summer in five districts—Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha and Nilphamari-- under Rangpur division and four districts—Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore and Chapainawabganj-- under Rajshahi division, the target may not be met up as irrigation in these areas rely on diesel supply.
Near about 21% of irrigated land in these areas depend on diesel-powered pumps and of 21,538, deep tube wells, 615 run on diesel. Among 210,449 shallow tube wells, 98,268 are diesel-operated.
Similarly, of the 17,647 low-lift pumps, 11,458 depend on diesel (Farmers are facing a three-pronged crisis: anxiety of the impact on production, oil, and).
According to the specialists of the sector of Agriculture, the coming 10 to 15 days will be very crucial. Without ample diesel supply and steady power support, Bangladesh may face a serious decline in rice production.
What the present government can or should do?
Bangladesh has successfully faced the pandemic period of 2020-22 and survived a Russia-Ukrine War and genocide in Gaza with its immediate effects on the world at large in recent years. All we need in the current backdrop of US-Iran war from our present government is nothing but prudent and wise diplomacy with sheer practicality. Rather than chanting xenophobic slogans against the neighboring nations, a proper assessment of the situation and how we can collect fuels from the global and regional superpowers is severely needed.
Finally we have no other way but to echo the maestro T.S. Eliot again and again:
'April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.’
Let the Lilacs bloom!
[This article has been written by Audity Falguni for Khaborer Kagoj Online]
