Farmers of Chapainawabganj are not getting any positive results from rice procurement as middleman who are locally called as Foira are doing a brisk business through the procurement drive.
Local sources said the target of the government’s food procurement drive in the district might not achieve target as many farmers are not interested to sell their produces fearing losses.
Farmers said the government officials were interested in buying paddy from middlemen instead of them.
They said the price which the middlemen were offering to them was below their production cost.
During a visit to several markets, this correspondent found that farmers were frustrated as they could not be able to sell their crop to the government directly.
Rahmat Ali, a trader, said: “Why we are compelled to sell paddy on open market?. We are supposed to sell paddy to government's godown.”
Bokul Hossain, another paddy grower, said: “We became happy after hearing that the government has fixed price of per maund paddy at Tk920. But the tragedy is that now we are selling one maund paddy at Tk500 to Tk600 due to interference of middlemen.
“We cannot sell paddy at government godown. We do not have any option but to sell the grain as we have to repay our loan which we took from bank and mohajon [money lender].”
He said if the government started procurement earlier and bought paddy from farmers directly they would get more profit.
He said: “The prices of everything is increasing day by day while the prices of agri-produces are declining. Is this justice to us?”
He also requested the government to buy paddy from marginal farmers directly.
Moreover, many farmers alleged that they had gone to government godown to sell paddy, but people concerned did not buy paddy from them saying that their paddy were sub-standard.
Finding no alternative, growers had to come to local markets to sell their produce to Foira, middleman.
Chapainawabganj Food Controller Md Mahidul Haque denied all the allegations.
He said the government had changed paddy selling policy tremendously. According to the policy, farmers can sell their paddy to government godown directly.
According to the new policy, a farmer should have a farmer identity card provided by the upzila agriculture officer and a bank account number to sell paddy to the government godown directly.
“So, there is no scope for middlemen to do business with the procurement drive,” he said.
Asked about why they are not buying paddy from card holders, he said they were buying paddy from card holders following rules.
He said upzila agriculture office has provided cards to genuine farmers through various steps of scrutiny.
“A farmer who has a card can sell paddy to us and we are bound to pay their payment though bank account,” he said.
Paddy trader Md Mosiul Karim told the Dhaka Tribune that farmers were not getting any kinds of benefits from these procurement.
He also alleged that many middlemen had already made identity cards as farmers in collaboration with a section of unscrupulous government staff.
He said: “If the paddy is bought through local union parishad office, farmers would get fair prices.
“The government is giving fair prices, but nothing has changed with farmers.”
