Aman rice farmers in Jashore are worried they will not recover what they have spent on this season's crop. People in the farm trade put last year's cost of growing aman on one bigha (33 decimals) at Tk 15,000-18,000; this year it will be Tk 18,000-21,000. At harvest, paddy usually sells for Tk 950-1,050 a maund.
Prothom Alo spoke to 15 farmers in Sadar, Manirampur, Jhikargachha and Abhaynagar upazilas and put together where the extra money goes. Fertiliser costs about Tk 1,000 more a bigha. Tractor ploughing has risen from Tk 300 to Tk 350 a pass, or Tk 200 more for the usual four passes. Day wages have gone from Tk 400 to Tk 500, and with ten labourers needed a bigha for transplanting and weeding, that adds Tk 1,000. Pesticide adds about Tk 500. In all, Tk 2,700 more a bigha, and more again where the land needs irrigating.
Hafizur Rahman of Donar village in Manirampur planted aman on five bighas this year. He said two diesel price rises, on 19 April and on 20 September, and dearer inputs of every kind would add Tk 2,000-3,000 a bigha, while paddy fetches about Tk 1,050 a maund.
Oliar Rahman, a sharecropper in Jalkar village of Sadar upazila, said he bought from retail shops to avoid harassment at licensed dealers, paying Tk 2,200 for a sack of TSP, Tk 1,200 for MoP and Tk 1,400 for urea. The government retail prices for a 50 kg sack are Tk 1,350 for TSP, DAP and urea and Tk 1,000 for MoP, according to the agriculture department. "Rice farming no longer lets us survive," he said. Tofazzel Molla of Bhayna village said market prices were far above the official ones.
The arithmetic is stark: at 15-16 maunds a bigha, 16 maunds sold at Tk 1,050 bring Tk 16,800, below this year's cost of growing them. The district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) says aman covers 133,000 hectares in Jashore this season.
Md Zahidul Islam Biswas, acting deputy director of the DAE in Jashore, said fertiliser application was almost over, though higher land might still need one or two supplementary irrigations, and dearer diesel would raise production costs. "If paddy prices do not rise, farmers will suffer," he said.
The report is by Prothom Alo's correspondent Masud Alam.
Photo: George achik / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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