Farmers all smiles in SW dists as jute regains glory
Price more than triples in last three years
Small farmers selling jute at a market in Khoksha upazila of Kushtia district as the region sees jute cultivation on larger areas and higher yield due to increase in prices. Photo: STAR
Jute farmers in 10 south-western districts are cultivating the cash crop in larger areas of land as it is earning them good profit for the last three years. Growers had to spend about Tk 12,000 for jute cultivation on a bigha of land that produced 10 to 14 maunds this season and the product, already arriving different markets in the region, is selling at Tk 1,800 to Tk 2,000 per maund, farmers said. “I have cultivated jute on three bighas of land and made better profit compared to other crops this year,” said Abdul Mannan, a farmer of Khoksa upazila in Kushtia district. Only a couple of years ago, jute sold for Tk 300 to 500 per maund, causing farmers to incur losses. Farmers have cultivated jute on 2,02,880 hectares of land against the AED target of 1,54,900 hectares in 10 districts in the region this year, said sources at Agricultural Extension Department (AED) offices in the division. Last year, farmers cultivated jute on 1,15,938 hectares land against the AED target of 1,24,900 hectares in the region. Higher average yield of the crop and good market price in the region during the last two to three years helped the farmers get benefited, said AED officials, farmers and market analysts. This year jute was cultivated on 37,000 hectares of land in Kushtia district while Magura, Jhenidah, Chuadanga, Jessore, Meherpur, Narail, Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat saw jute cultivation on 34120 hectares, 24598 hectares, 24,600 hectares, 24140 hectares, 23950 hectares, 20173 hectares, 9930 hectares, 3081 hectares and 1288 hectares of land. Farmers prefer tosha (chorchorous olitorius) that was cultivated on some two lakh hectares of land, while a few other varieties, including deshi (chorchorous), on the rest of the land. However, the jute farmers faced some common problems including seed crisis that hampered sowing seeds in time during the sowing season. According to officials at Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and AED, 1704,280 kg of jute seeds were needed for Khulna division this season but the government supplied only 62,478 kg this season. This forced the farmers to collect seeds from market at higher prices while many farmers were cheated as they bought low quality Indian seeds, farmers said. Farmers have urged the government to check the flow of low quality seeds and ensure good varieties of jute seeds during the sowing season.
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