Farmers are in despair because they cannot get a fair price for their paddy in the market. The government is considering the use of technology and exporting rice.

A few days ago a farmer in Tangail district set fire to ripe paddy in his field out of anger and frustration.

In any year when the paddy harvest is good in the country, farmers are left in despair over the price. The question now being raised is whether there is any way out of this cycle at all.

Mosammat Banesha Begum of the Nageshwari area of Kurigram, a northern district, grew Boro paddy on three bighas of land she took from someone else as a sharecropper. But with the price of paddy now low compared with her labour and costs, she has come to a standstill.

"There is no price for paddy, but farming costs are high. I have to pay labourers Tk 1,200 to harvest one bigha of paddy. It does not pay," she said.

A few days ago Abdul Sikdar, a farmer from Bankina village in Kalihati upazila of Tangail, poured petrol on the ripe paddy in his field and set it alight.

A member of his family said he did it out of anger and frustration because the price of paddy was low compared with the cost of growing it.

Farmers now have to sell Boro paddy at Tk 500 to Tk 600 a maund.

Azizar Rahman, a farmer in Kurigram, said they are left in despair over the price of paddy every year.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.