Farmers all smiles over fair prices

Farmers of Dinajpur and Joypurhat are getting better price selling early varieties of aman paddy.

Harvesting of the early aman paddy started in these two districts a week ago.

According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials in the districts, around 2,56,750 and 72,310 acres were brought under aman cultivation in Dinajpur and Joypuraht to produce 6,85,647 and 1,93,102 tonnes of rice respectively.

Farmers cultivated early varieties of aman on 70,000 acres this year with the hope of good profit as the last paddy season was not good for them due to the low price.

Mozahar Ali of Joyanti village under Joypurhat Sadar upazila said he cultivated Bina -7 on his four acres of land. He started harvesting the paddy on October 11, and is expecting better price for his produce, he added.

Paddy price was low when boro harvesting began across this region, but now the price is stable, said Belal Hossain of Dadra village, who sold 10 maunds of paddy for Tk 6,500. The price of paddy is around Tk 600 to Tk 650 per maund, he added.

Shahidul Islam of Puranpoil area said he got 50 maunds of paddy from an acre. Farmers will start planting winter crops like potatoes and tomatoes after harvesting paddy, said Julfiquar Ali of the village.

In Dinajpur, the farmers who cultivated the early varieties of paddy have been passing busy days in harvesting and threshing their paddy. 

Farmers of Chirirbandar upazila said the weather was not favourable when they started cultivating the paddy. The weather was adverse at the onset of the season, there was no rain, and irrigation was greatly disrupted due to load-shedding, but finally they got healthy yield, said Shahinur Rahman of Satnala village.

Additional Deputy Director of Joypurhat DAE Abu Hossain said his office is expecting a healthy yield this aman season.