Although there is a bumper production of paddy in Rajshahi, the farmers are utterly disappointed at the low market price.
During the current season of Boro cultivation, the production cost of paddy has increased in compared to last couples of years whereas the price of paddy remained very low for subsequent last three-year. Farmers complained, the paddy traders and middlemen were rather being benefitted by purchasing and selling paddy whereas farmers were the losers.
According to sources, farmers of the district were selling Swarna and BR-28 varieties of paddy from Tk 540 to 700 per maund (40 kilogramme). There having no sufficient rainfall during this season, farmers mainly depended on irrigation, as a result, this season the production cost of the paddy was Tk 3,000 to 4,000 more per bigha of land than the previous years.
Wahed Ali, a farmer of Talanda village under Tanore upazila, said that the price remained low. The Swarna variety is being sold only at Tk 25 per kg and BR-28 is being sold at Tk 28. The price of rice does not even cover the wages of labourers. He sought immediate government intervention in fixing a reasonable price to save the farmers from incurring heavy loss.
Abdul Wadud, Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Rajshahi, said Swarna variety has been cultivated on 75,166 hectares of land in the district this year. The average production of the paddy per hectre of land is 7.57 metric tonnes whereas it was only 3.3 metric tonnes last year. Though the production cost is more this year due to extra irrigation cost, the production being higher, the farmers will not incur loss even after a low market price. Abul Kashem of Lalitahar village under Paba upazila said that he produced Swarna paddy on five and a half bigha of land where it costs him Tk 12,000 in per bigha to produce it whereas last year it took only Tk 7,000 to 8,000 to produce the same variety of paddy on the same amount of land.
He expressed his disappointment at the low market price mentioning he will need to repay the of loan he took for cultivation of paddy from his own sources because of low price of paddy. Abdullah Al Mamun, owner of Munshi Traders in Godagari, said the trading of newly harvested paddy started just one week ago.
The price of ‘Sumon Swarna’ and ‘Swarna-5’ variety of Paddy was Tk 650 per maund, the ‘51’ variety of paddy was being purchased at Taka 690 per maund and ‘ Guti swarna’ variety of paddy is being purchased at Tk 670 to 675 per maund at present, he added.
Rahmat Ali, a farmer of Rajabari village, said that the price of water and fertiliser was higher this year. Moreover, there was shortages and high rate of labourers resulting a high production cost but the sale price was lower than that of the production cost. He demanded fixation of paddy price by the farmers from being loser.
