Bangladeshi farmers said yesterday they might not be able to plant all their rice fields this season because of a lack of rain and weather forecasters could not hold out much hope of improvement.

"Half the season for planting Aman rice is over with little or no rain. Lands are dry and cannot be planted," said farmer Abdul Jalil in Bangladesh’s northern Chalanbil area.

"Unless there is enough rain over the next two weeks, we will have to pull off the fields and leave them barren," he said.

Weather officials said yesterday they expected "some good rainfall" in about a week but they were not sure it would be enough to satisfy the needs of agriculture.