In late April, Bangladesh's Haor Basin was hit by out-of-season flash floods. Rainfall across all seven districts of the basin ran nearly 76% above normal. In Kishoreganj, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department's Nikli station recorded more than 6 inches of rain in a single day, and the World Food Program recorded double the amount of rainfall in Bangladesh compared to the same period last year.

The stretch between April and May is traditionally a harvesting season for boro rice, the irrigation-intensive variety that accounts for half the nation's rice harvest. This year, floodwaters inundated more than 130,000 acres of land devoted to growing this crop, leading to losses of nearly 214,000 metric tons of boro rice. Approximately 230,000 farmers watched as their lands were submerged weeks ahead of the expected monsoon season.

This isn't the first time the Haor Basin has drowned before the harvest could be brought in. In March 2017 [PDF], flash floods damaged approximately 543,000 acres of land across seven districts, affecting 850,088 households.

Prior to the flooding this spring, Bangladesh began to face fuel shortages as a result of the turmoil created by the U.S.-Iran conflict. Farmers from Kishoregonj waited four to six hours to purchase diesel so that they could run their pumps and irrigate the boro fields amid scorching temperatures.

"We had to go to the black market when there was no fuel left at the fuel station, as we had to pay $1.22 per liter instead of $0.81 for that," said a local farmer, Mohammad Supur Mia of Kishoreganj.

The cost of labor to save the crops has also quadrupled. The rate for a day laborer, who used to charge $5.69 for harvesting paddies on dry land, has doubled to $12.20 even though the labor required is reduced in flooded areas. The farmers who succeeded in protecting their crops from the floodwaters are selling their wet produce at $6.50 per maund when the regular price is $11.38 because of consumers believing the produce is of lesser quality.

Mohammad Iqbal, who is from Kishoreganj, salvaged roughly one-third of his harvest; the rest remains submerged. He has a bank loan of $813.01 that requires him to pay 12 monthly installments of $89.43. As the sole earner for a family of six, he says, "I am unsure of how to put food on the table with the mounting pressure of loans and loss; selling only 40 maunds would do nothing for my family."

Faced with the scarcity of feed and debt problems, some farmers are being forced to sell their cattle at a lower price before Eid al-Adha, when livestock prices should be at their highest. "This is the only way I can repay my debt and take care of my family," said Shahin Molla, a farmer from Kishoreganj.

Deforestation, Measles, and Medicine

The flooding is more than a local weather event. It is the downstream consequence of a regional system under strain. In May, approximately 15.75 inches of precipitation were registered by India's Meteorological Department at the southwestern and eastern parts of the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, which share boundaries with the Sylhet and Sunamganj districts of Bangladesh's Haor Basin. This area is marked by deforestation and alterations in land use that have decreased forest cover that used to slow down and absorb water. Now, without this barrier, the Haor Basin regions of Bangladesh are experiencing higher rates of rain runoff with less warning.

The downstream effects on food supply are already visible. Different rice variant prices in Dhaka's wholesale markets rose from $15 to $37 per ton by mid-May. If two-thirds of the Haor crop cannot be recovered, agricultural economist Mohammad Jahangir Alam estimates that the losses could translate into a 20% to 25% reduction in national rice supply. This outcome would place significant pressure on a country that is already experiencing a food deficit, as Bangladesh ranks eighty-fifth on the Global Hunger Index's 2025 report.