The farmers, mostly marginalized ones, are reportedly selling their boro paddy at Tk 500-550 per mound, about Tk 200 less than the government fixed price, as their paddy got wet in the heavy rains.
The farmers in many areas, who do not have enough storage capacity, said that they were facing problems in harvesting and drying the paddy due to rains.Mohammad Sohel, a farmer in Bajitpurpur Upazila of Kishoreganj district, told New Age that they harvested boro paddy, but could not dry the crops well at their homes due to ceaseless rainfalls that also inundated the croplands inundating immature paddy to rot under water.
He said that wet boro paddy were currently selling at Tk 450 to 500 per mound while the dry paddy at Tk 550 to 600 in the local market. Sohel said most of his boro paddy got rotten in rainwater and those paddy were selling at Tk 400 per mound.
About 85 per cent of boro paddy have already been harvested across the country up to May 27, according to field service wing of the Department of Agriculture Extension at Khamar Bari.
The DAE officials told New Age on Monday that the government would soon estimate the total damage of the boro crops affected by cyclone Mahasen and ceaseless rains.
But boro production was seen satisfactory across the country, they said.
Ishak Miah, another farmer in the district, said frequent rains since for 20-25 days greatly hampered harvesting of boro paddy during its peak time of harvest.
The rains severely damaged boro crops while the production cost rose due to high demand of labourers during the current season, he said.
Sajjad Zahir Chandan, Bangladesh Krishok Samity general secretary, said that recent Mahasen cyclone had damaged boro paddy in Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Bhola, Barisal, Borguna and some other coastal areas.
Boro paddy was currently selling at Tk 500-550 per mound, he said.
The peasant leader also demanded the government should purchase boro directly from the growers at Tk 850 per mound by setting up buying centres at the union level.
Officials at the department of food said that government has already started procuring boro paddy and boiled rice since May 2 and it would continue the purchase till September 30 of this year at the government rate for boiled rice at Tk 29, Atob at Tk 28 and paddy of Tk 18.5 per kilogram.
Up to May 26, only 60 metric tonnes of paddy, out of the targeted 1.5 lakh metric tonnes, were procured by the government, they said.
About farmers’ deprivation of fair price for boro paddy, food department director general Ahmed Hossain Khan told New Age on Monday that the government was buying the dry paddy directly from the farmers at Tk 18.5 per kg that stands Tk 740 per mound.
But the country’s farmers are not well-organised and capable enough to supply the government dry paddy as per requirement, he said.
Officials at each godown have been asked to buy minimum 40 kg and maximum three tonnes of dry paddy from each farmer, he said, adding that the government’s target would remain unfulfilled due to supply shortage of paddy by the farmers.
The DG food, however, said the government set a target to purchase 8.5 lakh metric tones of rice from the millers at Tk 29 per kilogram.
-With New Age input
