Farmers demonstrate for fair price of boro paddy
Farmers halt traffic on Gaibandha-Sundarganj Road in Dariyapur Bazar in Gaibandha district yesterday demanding fair price for boro paddy.Photo: STAR
Several hundred farmers yesterday blocked Gaibandha-Sunderganj Road at Dariyapur Bazar in the district to press home their demand for fixing boro paddy price at Tk 850 per maund. They put up sacks of paddy on the road at around 11:00am, halting vehicular movement for an hour. Bangladesh Krishak Samity Gaibandha district unit organised the protest programme. Addressing a rally at Dariyapur Bazar, the farmers said though the government has fixed procurement rate of per maund of paddy at TK 720, they have to sell the same at Tk 425 to 440 at village markets Many of the marginal farmers have failed to get back the production cost of the boro crop this season, they said. Apart from the demand, they also urged the government to procure boro paddy directly from the farmers so that middlemen could not collect the the crop at a throw- away price. Among others, samity's central committee's member Subhash Shaha Roy, district unit Secretary Sadequl Islam and farmers' leaders Abdus Samad and Ashini Kumar Shil, spoke. In Natore, Farmers have urged the government to re-fix boro paddy price at Tk 20 per kg, reports our correspondent. They came up with the demand at a protest rally held in the district town yesterday noon. They also formed a human chain in front of Natore Press Club to meet the demand. Organised by Krishak Samity, the speakers at the programme said farmers are incurring huge loss for selling per kg boro at the government-fixed rate.
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