Thakurgaon's farmers have grown a bumper crop of early cauliflower and cabbage this year but now face losses because prices have collapsed. At wholesale markets across the district a maund of 43 kg is selling for only Tk 400, about Tk 9.30 a kilogram, while farmers say the same vegetables sell for Tk 30 to 40 a kilo at retail.
Farmers say they planted large areas with early cabbage and cauliflower hoping for a profit, paying more for fertiliser, seed, pesticide and labour. Now wholesalers buy cheap and sell dear. With no local storage or processing industry, vegetables that all ripen at once have to be sold quickly, leaving no chance to hold them for a better price.
Shahabuddin, a farmer in the Begunbari area, said a bigha takes 10,000 to 12,000 seedlings, which alone cost about Tk 20,000. Then come five rounds of fertiliser, four weedings and at least ten irrigations, on top of the cost of disease control.
Mansur Ali, from the same area, grew cauliflower on two bighas at a total cost of about Tk 120,000. If prices stay where they are he expects to earn no more than Tk 80,000. "We grow the crop in the field, but we have no say when the price is set," he said. "At Tk 400 a maund we cannot even cover the labour." Farmers want a farm-gate price of at least Tk 15 to 20 a kilo to absorb their costs.
Majedul Islam, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Thakurgaon, said good weather meant early cauliflower and cabbage were planted on more land than targeted, and the glut had pushed prices down. He called it temporary: prices could rise once supply settles and the cold sets in. The report was filed by Krishi Shomoy's Thakurgaon correspondent.
Photo: Peter Forster / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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