In Sunamganj, medium-quality paddy is selling for Tk 600 to 700 a maund, while a kilogram of seed of a good rice variety costs Tk 600: a farmer must sell a maund of paddy to buy a kilogram of seed. Yields in the haor wetlands were poor this year and farmers are struggling to recover their costs, and buying seed for the Boro season is now adding to their troubles.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, Boro rice will be grown on 223,521 hectares in the district's 137 large and small haors this season. Last year the district produced 856,944.12 tonnes of rice. The production target and number of farmers for this year have not yet been set.
Muhibur Rahman of Rajinpur village in Fatepur union, Bishwambharpur, will grow rice on his 8 acres this year. Last year the land gave him 250 maunds, against the 450 he had hoped for had there been no damage, and growing the crop and bringing it home cost him Tk 190,000. He sold 50 maunds of well-coloured paddy at Tk 900 a maund, but the rest was slightly discoloured and fetches only Tk 600 to 700 wholesale, not enough to cover his costs, he said. He bought a 10 kg bag of BRRI 29 seed for Tk 600, 4 kg of Janakraj at Tk 400 a kilogram and 4 kg of Zirashail at Tk 500 a kilogram; Mitali-2 is selling for Tk 600 to 650 a kilogram. He has not yet received any government incentive.
In Tahirpur, the best-selling seed this year has been BRRI 67 and BRRI 28, at a government price of Tk 630 for a 10 kg bag. Hybrid BRRI-8 rice seed is selling at the BADC price of Tk 320 a kilogram, Syngenta's 1203 at Tk 460, BRAC's Shakti-2 at Tk 460 and National Agricare's Janakraj at Tk 400. Samayun Kabir, a seed dealer at Tahirpur bazar, said a great deal of Boro is grown in the Shoni and Matian haors, but with paddy prices low there is no cheer among farmers: a maund of paddy and a kilogram of seed cost about the same, and the festive mood of past seed seasons is missing.
District food controller Ferdous Jahan said the government will buy 3,668 tonnes of paddy in the district during the Aman season at Tk 1,440 a maund, starting on Sunday; 20,000 tonnes were bought in the last Boro season. Even so, many farmers say there are no buyers in the haors. Ayna Mia, a large farmer from Hawria Alipur beside Hali haor in Jamalganj, will grow rice on about 54 acres this year. He has bought 50 10 kg bags of BADC's 92 and 67 varieties at Tk 600 each, and other seed at Tk 150 to 400 a kilogram, but not the Tk 600-700 seed. If a kilogram of seed costs as much as a maund of paddy, he asked, how much profit is there in Boro, especially with no incentive?
Mohammad Omar Faruk, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Sunamganj, said not all farmers will receive incentives this year and the incentive has not yet arrived. Seed that yields well will cost more, he said; the seed priced at a maund of paddy is not produced in Bangladesh but imported, and the department can do nothing about that, though it will act against anyone charging above the set price. Yakub Bakht Bahlul, Sunamganj president of the Haor Bachao Andolon, said last season was lost to water and this one to drought; paddy prices are low, there is no incentive, and the rules for selling at the government price favour middlemen. He called for lasting government action to save farmers.
This report is based on a dispatch by Biswajit Roy, Ajker Patrika's Sunamganj correspondent.
Photo: MdRamjanAliWiki / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Source: Ajker Patrika
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