Boro farmers worried as quality seeds scanty, pricey
Production fall feared in 8 northern districts
Farmers of eight northern districts, the country's prime paddy growing area, are worried in the beginning of the boro season as supply of quality seeds is much less than demand while unscrupulous traders are marketing inferior seeds under different brand names.
As supply of quality seeds produced and marketed by BADC (Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation) is too meager and pricey, farmers are compelled to buy mostly low quality seeds from other sources, reports our Nilphamari correspondent.
Additional director's office of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Rangpur set a target to bring 8 lakh 6 thousand hectares of land in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts under boro cultivation which is about 31,000 hectares higher than the previous year.
High yielding variety (HYV) paddy will be produced on 5,59,293 hectares, hybrid on 2,44,126 hectares and local variety on 2491 hectares.
DAE sources said that requirement of HYV paddy seeds on a hectare is 20kg, that of hybrid and local variety paddy in same area are 15 kg and 30 kg respectively. Accordingly, the demand of boro seeds in eight northern districts would be 14.5 thousand tonnes.
Officially, boro cultivation season began on November 16 and will continue till the end of December.
Now aman harvesting is going on in full swing and large areas of land have been vacated. Farmers are busy in preparing their vacant lands for boro cultivation.
Farmers said that they usually prefer boro seeds of BADC as those are grown and preserved in scientific way, making them free from virus and fungus and high yielding.
BADC supplied only about 4.05 thousand MT of boro seeds, which meets only 28% of total demand in eight northern districts, BADC sources said, adding that official price of a 10 kg bag of boro seed is fixed at Tk 330 to Tk 350, depending on variety.
But in most cases, farmers are not getting their required variety of paddy seeds from BADC sale centres. They alleged that they had to buy a 10 kg bag boro seed of popular BRRI Dhan-28 and BRRI Dhan-29 from seed dealers for Tk 450-Tk 500.
Visiting different seed markets in the region including Tengonmari Haat, Suti Bari Haat of Nilphamari, and Sakoa Haat of Panchagarh, this correspondent found that boro seeds are selling for high prices. Kept in colourful bags in the names of different companies, they remain mostly out of quality testing.
A 10kg bag of boro seed of different companies other than BADC is selling for Tk 600 to Tk 650 while a 2kg bag of hybrid variety paddy, mostly imported from India, is selling for Tk 240-Tk 260.
Monju Alam Sarker, field officer of Seed Certification Agency in Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat, said that that his department certified only 312 MT and 103 MT of boro seeds in the two districts.
“Seeds from different districts are coming to this area for sale. Quality of those seeds is questionable. But due to manpower shortage we could not launch drive against low quality or untested seeds,” he said.
Several farmers said production will be hampered due to shortage of quality seeds.
Our Dinajpur correspondent reports: Amid short supply of BADC seeds farmers in the district have to pay exorbitant prices for buying quality seeds from the appointed dealers.
BADC fixed boro seeds price Tk 330 and Tk 350 for each 10kg bag.
But field visit by this correspondent revealed that the farmers were collecting BADC boro seeds for Tk 550-600 per 10kg seed bag.
Many farmers are returning from BADC sales centres empty-handed as the supply of seeds is much less than the demand.
An appointed dealer of Birampur upazila seeking anonymity alleged that they have to pay additional charge for collecting the seeds from the sales centres of BADC.
Denying the allegation of charging additional money from the appointed dealers of BADC, BADC Deputy Director (Seed) Md Mofazzal Hossain said, "Following report of overcharging for BADC seeds two market monitoring committees have been formed to monitor the market."
Our Gaibandha correspondent adds: Innocent farmers are being cheated as low quality boro seeds under the cover of brand companies have flooded local markets.
Most of BADC seeds supplied to the local dealers are being sold to the black marketers, alleged farmers. A bag of 10 kg BADC boro seed is selling for Tk 420 to Tk 430 against the government rate of Tk 330.
DAE fixed target of boro farming on 1,22,323 hectares of land in the district this season. Hybrid will be cultivated on 25,251 hectares, HYV on 96,059 hectares and local variety on 1,022 hectares with a production target of 4,89,654 MT of rice.
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