Rural women are now very busy drying paddy in Sreepur upazila of Gazipur. Despite round-the-clock work, their fatigue is tempered by the joy of harvesting paddy they cultivated themselves. In mid-Poush, they are passing busy time in drying paddy after cutting and threshing amid winter chill.
Even though labour shortages and rising wages for workers have increased production costs, bumper yield has eased their worries. With paddy drying nearly complete, preparations are underway for its storage and marketing. Local markets are also gearing up for seasonal trade, with brisk buying and selling of paddy, straw and other agricultural products. Farmers hope fair prices this year will reward their year-long efforts.
In the past, farmers prepared special drying floors (khola) by leveling land and plastering it with a mixture of earth and cow dung. Such scenes are now rare. Paddy is dried on tarpaulins or jute sheets laid out in open fields or small flat spaces, allowing quick protection from sudden rain or storms.
Afroza Akter, a housewife from Bindubari village in Rajabari union, said, “Paddy has been harvested recently. We’ve finished making flour from rice. Now we’ll invite our daughters and sons-in-law. Our grandchildren will visit our house, and we’ll enjoy pithas together.”
Momtaj Begum from Baldighat village in Kawraid said that the season brings a variety of traditional foods—bhapa, chitai, and savory pithas, along with payesh made from date palm juice. “But with paddy prices a bit low this year, the celebrations feel muted in some places,” she added.
Farmer Jalil Mia of Abdar village said that although new paddy prices are slightly lower, relatives still look forward to the harvest. “Even if not elaborate, we will celebrate Nabanna on a small scale, as we do every year,” he said.
Abdul Karim, a farmer from Goldapara village, said favourable weather conditions and timely harvesting led to satisfactory Aman production this year. “With threshing and drying underway, a festive mood has spread across the villages,” he noted.
Mariam Akter, a woman farmer, said she cultivated Aman on three bighas of land and achieved higher yields than last year. “We’ve been harvesting for two days. I stayed up all night parboiling paddy. This morning we brought it to the field, spread nets, and set it to dry. The sky is clearing—everything should dry well. There’s no worry until the Boro season,” she said.
Hasna Begum, another woman farmer, described paddy drying as strenuous work that requires standing in the sun and turning the grains repeatedly. “But once the harvest comes in, all hardship fades. We are working together—teamwork speeds things up,” she said.
While changing times and challenges have slightly dampened festive fervour in some areas, many traditions endure in this agriculture-dependent land. Climate change has increased risks for farming, but with hard work and the use of improved technologies, farmers continue to seek the golden smile of a successful harvest—an encouraging sign as modern methods increasingly shape agricultural practices.
