Price fall, high labour cost frustrate jute growers
Jute growers in the district are becoming frustrated due to fall in jute price and high labour cost.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources said, 60,000 hectares more land than the previous year were brought under jute cultivation this year due to favourable weather and world market condition.
But now the farmers are counting huge loss due to slide in price. Jute is now being sold between Tk 1,000 and Tk 1,200 in different markets of the district.
On the other hand, many farmers are not even cutting and rotting jute plants due to increased labour cost. Per head labour for jute cutting and rotting is Tk 250 against Tk 150-180 for any other work.
Farmer Selim Miah of Sripur village in Poba upazila said he cultivated jute on two bighas of land this year but incurred loss.
He said production cost of jute went up due to high labour cost much to the worry of the jute growers of the district.
Jute plants are getting dried in the field as the farmers in some areas could not rot jute due to high labour charge, he added.
Farmers said price of per maund jute was Tk 1,500-1,600 at the beginning of the last season and later the price rose to Tk 2,200. The price had inspired them to plant jute on larger areas.
DAE sources said, some 11.38 lakh hectares of land were brought under jute cultivation in eight districts in last season. But the farmers brought more land under jute cultivation this season exceeding the target of 11.98 lakh hectares.
Another report adds: Thakurgaon is also expecting a bumper production of jute this year.
Belayet Hossain, deputy director of DAE said this season a target was fixed to cultivate jute on 12,458 hectares in the district.
But the farmers brought additional 3,817 hectares under cultivation as they got good price of their produce last year.
DAE officials expected that 2 lakh bales of jute will be produced here this year against the target of 1,31,147 bales.
Belayet Hossain said if farmers rot jute using ribbon rating method they will get high quality jute fibre. A total of 645 machines were distributed among farmers of the district to rot jute using the newly introduced method, he said.
In Thakurgaon too, per maund of jute is being sold between Tk 1,200 and Tk 1,300 much to the disappointment of local farmers.
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