Rejoinder and our reply
Bombay Agro Limited has sent a rejoinder to a Daily Star report headlined 'Contract potato growers protest breach of accord' published in this page on March 27. Here we carry the substantive part of the rejoinder first and then our reply.
Rejoinder
Bombay Agro Limited has taken a bold initiative this potato season to cultivate processing grade potatoes in Northern part of Bangladesh through contract farming agreement with the farmers. Most farmers who have signed up with Bombay Agro Limited are very happy with this initiative. Farmers at Bombay Agro Limited are delivering their produce to the company at Tk. 12 to Tk. 13 per kg depending on the variety grown. Unfortunately, out of 155 contract farmers, only 29 farmers did not reach the expected quality standards. As per the agreement, Bombay Agro Limited is not responsible to purchase below standard potatoes from the farmers. Hence there is no breach of accord. In response to the request from the underachieving farmers and to save them from incurring losses, the management agreed to accept these below standard potatoes at Tk. 8 per kg while the present market rate is Tk. 5 per kg. Our reply
Our correspondent in Thakurgaon talked to a number of growers including - Nazrul Islam Khokon, Wahiduzzaman and Abdul Hamid of Chandipur village - and all of them said as per their agreement with Bombay Agro Limited they were supposed to receive all the potatoes they produced. They said though the company bought from them the potatoes of Carage and Lady Roseta varities at Tk. 12/13 kg rate, they declined to buy the potatoes of Astarix variety at the same rate on quality pretext and wanted to offer them Tk. 8 a kg. The Daily Star also quoted the company's local representative in its March 27 report where he had acknowledged the matter saying lower prices were offered to some of the contract growers because of poor quality of their produces.
Bombay Agro Limited has taken a bold initiative this potato season to cultivate processing grade potatoes in Northern part of Bangladesh through contract farming agreement with the farmers. Most farmers who have signed up with Bombay Agro Limited are very happy with this initiative. Farmers at Bombay Agro Limited are delivering their produce to the company at Tk. 12 to Tk. 13 per kg depending on the variety grown. Unfortunately, out of 155 contract farmers, only 29 farmers did not reach the expected quality standards. As per the agreement, Bombay Agro Limited is not responsible to purchase below standard potatoes from the farmers. Hence there is no breach of accord. In response to the request from the underachieving farmers and to save them from incurring losses, the management agreed to accept these below standard potatoes at Tk. 8 per kg while the present market rate is Tk. 5 per kg. Our reply
Our correspondent in Thakurgaon talked to a number of growers including - Nazrul Islam Khokon, Wahiduzzaman and Abdul Hamid of Chandipur village - and all of them said as per their agreement with Bombay Agro Limited they were supposed to receive all the potatoes they produced. They said though the company bought from them the potatoes of Carage and Lady Roseta varities at Tk. 12/13 kg rate, they declined to buy the potatoes of Astarix variety at the same rate on quality pretext and wanted to offer them Tk. 8 a kg. The Daily Star also quoted the company's local representative in its March 27 report where he had acknowledged the matter saying lower prices were offered to some of the contract growers because of poor quality of their produces.
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