Vegetables growers are down as they are not getting fair prices of their agri-produces this year for lack of customers.
Farmers said the higher transportation cost for crops from southern districts to the capital has made wholesalers reluctant to buy agri-crops from the district.
Finding no alternative, they are now selling produces at prices which are lower than production cost.
Moreover, farmers of the district counted a huge loss in the last few months because of back-to-back hartals and blockades enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.
Farmers had hoped they would be able to recover their losses once the political situation of the country became normal.
Many of the growers said that if there were preservation facilities in the district, they could get fair prices.
They urged authorities to establish cold storage to lessen the woes of farmers.
Abul Fazal of Gobindapur village under Sailkupa upazila in Jhenaidah said he had cultivated spinach on 20 decimals of land and got 600 maunds of the vegetables.
“I had to spend Tk42,000 to produce that amount of vegetables. I sold spinach of Tk9,500 and I may sell the remaining spinach at Tk5,500.”
As the country had faced continuous blockades and general strikes in the last few months, buyers from Dhaka, Comilla and Sylhet could not reach local vegetable markets to procure agri-produce from farmers.
It was learnt that a farmer had to spend at least Tk8,000 for seeds, irrigation, fertiliser, pesticides, weeding and labour to bring each bigha (33 decimals) of land under cultivation.
Altaf Hossain, who is the biggest producer in Jhenaidah and Chuadanaga, said he had produced eggplants, radish, gourd, potato, bitter gourd and papaya on his 95 bighas of land at Ganna village in Jhenaidah sadar upazila.
Hossain made Tk19,000 so far and is expecting another Tk5,000 from the plots. He had also sent vegetables to the capital’s Karwan Bazar and Shyampur and Amin Bazar in Sylhet markets with his own trucks.
However, the trucks could not run on the roads because of blockades and general strikes with violence in past two months.
December and January are the peak hours for selling the winter crops, Altaf said.
Farmers in the Chariarbil area of the district said they had been selling cauliflowers weighing at least one kilogram for Tk3 while each cabbage weighing three kilogram is sold at Tk3 to Tk3.50 to the retailers.
Department of Agriculture Extension in Jhenaidah office sources said the farmers had cultivated winter vegetables on a total of 6,900 hectares of land in the current season in Jhenaidah sadar, Kaliganj, Kotchandpur, Moheshpur, Sailkupa and Harinakundu upazilas.
The farmers had produced at least 10 lakh tonnes of vegetables on their plots.
About 60% of the vegetables are sent to Dhaka, Sylhet, Barisal and Chittagong kitchen markets.
“The farmers were in trouble when they could not receive decent prices for their produce. The political situation really hit them hard this season,” said Deputy Director of DAE Joynul Abedin.
“The farmers in the district have to incur a loss of Tk45 crore in the season due to blockade and strike,” he continued.
“The loss of the farmers could be minimized if there were some cold storage system nearby, but there are none,” the deputy director added.