Contract farmers of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) formed a human chain in Bogura on Tuesday (29 April) in protest at the low price set for seed potatoes. The programme was held at about 11:30am in the BSCIC area of the town.

Farmers from Bogura and Joypurhat who spoke included Md Zia Haider, Abu Musa Sarkar, Saharul Islam, Kafil Khan, Hasan Mamun Tarek, Rifat, Abdul Mannan Talukder, Iman Ali Tarafdar and Sekhsadi Mondal.

The speakers said they had been supplying seed potatoes to BADC under contract for 10 years. Last year the price set for their potatoes was Tk 33 to 35 a kg, while they had to buy seed at Tk 45 to 46 a kg depending on grade.

This year they bought seed potatoes from BADC at Tk 52 to 72. Against that, the corporation has now set the grade-based price for seed potatoes at Tk 26 to 28, which the speakers said would cause losses for contract farmers.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.