Rice price fall disappoints Dinajpur Boro growers
Bumper Boro production has failed to bring smile to the farmers in the district due to sharp fall in prices of rice on wholesale and retail markets.
Retailers said BRRI-28 variety of rice is being sold at Tk 35 per kg while the price was Tk 44 just a week ago. Price of miniket has come down to Tk 43 per kg from Tk 55.
Small and medium farmers said they are being compelled to sell their produce at lower price to repay the loan they took with a high interest rate for Boro cultivation.
According to the district officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE),
10,54,533 tonnes of paddy (5.88 tonnes per hectare) have been produced this season on 79,450 hectares of land.
Md Azizul Islam, a farmer of Kornai village under Dinapur Sadar upazila, said the price fall in retail markets is heavily impacting the prices in wholesale paddy markets of the district from the vary outset of Boro harvest.
“We are not making any profit. We are just getting our production cost back”, Azizul Islam added.
Monjurul Alam, another farmer of Farkabad village under Biral upazila, said bumper Boro production is not bringing smile on farmers because the price of paddy is going down everyday.
According to the farmers, they had spent about Tk 30,000 for Boro cultivation on per acre of land.
“In the local markets, we are selling a sack of paddy containing 80kg at Tk 1,050. After final calculation, it stands that we are making profiting only Tk 1,200 from per acre of land” said Zillur Rahman of Kornai village under Dinapur Sadar upazila.
During visit to local markets, this correspondent noticed that middlemen are controlling the wholesale paddy and rice markets.
Farmers are selling paddy at Tk 13,200 per tonne while millers purchasing the same amount of paddy from middlemen at Tk 16,000.
We are not getting due price of Boro paddy as the government is yet to star procurement drive. They (farmers) urged the government to start procurement of paddy as soon as possible.
Md Abdul Kader, additional district food controller, said they are yet to receive any directive from the government regarding the procurement drive.
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