A bumper yield of radish in Katiadi upazila has failed to make farmers happy as excessive harvest has led to a big fall in prices.
In many markets of the upazila, radish is being sold at as low as Tk1 per kg. Despite the nominal price, sellers find it hard to sell their products even after waiting for the whole day as buyers are reluctant to buy the vegetable.
Many farmers chose to abandon their unsold products in the markets in order to save transport costs. The abandoned products are also used as cattle feed in many areas.
Villages that saw abundant harvest of radish this year include Jalalpur, Nuakandi, Charpukkia, Jakalia, Lohajuri, Chariakona, and Masua. Many farmers in the villages even chose not to collect the harvest from the fields considering labour and transport costs.
Radish prices were high at the outset of winter but arrival of other seasonal vegetables has caused its demand to fall, leading to considerable losses, said farmers.
“I spent Tk34,000 to cultivate radish on a 2-bigha land and the yield topped 500 maunds. I expected to make Tk50,000 but had to sell it all at Tk7,000 because of the sharp fall in prices in the past few weeks,” said Md Abul Hossain, a farmer in Charpukkia village.
Alamgir Hossain, a vegetable wholesaler in Pirijpur village, said the fall in price was unexpected.
“Wholesalers also had to count losses while buying radish because of labour costs. A worker had to be paid Tk250-350 to collect radish from the field but the product could not be sold at prices that would bring profits. Prices went down as the supply is more than the demand,” he added.
“Radish was grown in 90 hectares of land in the upazila and the expected yield is 3,600 tonnes. Favourable weather conditions led to a bumper production this year,” said Mozahar Hossain Ahmed, agriculture officer in Katiadi.
He also echoed farmers, saying the arrival of other winter vegetables caused radish prices to fall rapidly.