Although a combination of favourable weather, high quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides led to a bumper production of boro this year, the comparatively low price of boro has dampened farmers’ fortunes.
One mound paddy is being sold at Tk480-550 at local markets, which is far below than the government’s procurement rate.
The government has fixed Tk740 to procure boro paddy this year, sources at Agriculture Extension Department said.
“We had to wait nearly three months, costing Tk500-600 on an average to produce one mound of paddy, but now we are selling our produce at lower prices,” a farmer of shoal areas told the Dhaka Tribune, and the story was repeated by many others.
Rise in labourer cost has also added farmers’ production cost, they said.
“Now we have to pay Tk300-350 for a labourer daily as the demand of labourers has increased due to rain and wet weather, to harvest the boro paddy,” said Abul Masur Ahmed, a farmer of village Char Bhwanipur in sadar upazila.
Ali Asgar, another farmer of the same village Char Gobindapur in sadar upazila, demanded a system where farmers could sell their produce to the government directly.
Traders at Shambhuganj, Tarakanda, Amuakanda, Kashiganj, Gouripur, Paranganj and Dhara Bazar, the biggest rice markets of the district, said at the beginning, they started buying boro paddy at Tk 580-600, but now are paying Tk480- 550.
“The price of boro paddy could increase slightly if the present weather condition prevails”, said rice traders.
Farhad Hossain, a supplier to mills, said he has bought around 500 mounds of rice so far at Tk500-520.
The price of boro paddy is lower than it was the previous year, he said.
Department of Agriculture Extension sources said 256,295 hectares of land across all 12 upazilas of the district were used for cultivation, with a production target of 990,691 tonnes of rice. Of the total area, hybrid varieties were cultivated on 21,435 hectares, high yielding varieties on 234,525 hectares while local varieties were on 335 hectares.
Deputy Director of DAE Narayan Chandra Basak said the recent rainfall and light hailstorms have affected boro harvesting at Phulpur, Muktagacha, Gouripur, Iswarganj and Sadar upazilas.
The government has started procurement drive last week, said Md Hanif, district food controller.
If farmers sell their produce to the government they will be benefit, he added.
