Boro farmers of Dinajpur have incurred losses due to high cost of pesticide and irrigation despite getting higher price of paddy compared to the previous years.
But paddy price is still lower than it was in last aman season.
Considering the loss, most farmers have been stocking paddy in their homes instead of selling in the market at lower price. Due to lower supply of paddy in the market, the price of paddy started to increase in Dinajpur. Taking advantage of this errant rice traders are raising the staples price.
According to the Dinajpur Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), against the target of cultivating Boro at 1,73,000 hectares in last season, the farmers cultivated on 1,74,510 hectares, around 1,420 hectares more than the previous year.
However, the DAE could not give exact statistics of boro production this season. According to the DAE officials and farmers, due to inadequate rainfall and draught and crop diseases boro production was less than in the previous year.
Md Anisuzzaman, DAE additional deputy director (crops) in Dinanjpur, said that the actual production of boro paddy cannot be said yet, but the overall production of Boro has increased s to 4.59 tonnes from 4.54 tonnes per hectare. According to this estimate production was around 8.02 lakh tonnes. He said that though the price of boro paddy is higher this year than the previous year, it is still lower than paady price in the aman season.
The price of aman was much higher last year.
Considering the situation, most farmers have not yet sold their paddy in the market. They have stocked their crops in their family godowns and watching the market and waiting to sell paddy at profit.
Farmers expect that the aman will grow well this season due to favourable weather in the district.
According to the traders and farmers, a sack of 76 kg BRRI-90 paddy was sold at Tk2,600 to Tk2,800 at Ambari Hat while per sack of Indian Sampa variety of Katharivog was sold at Tk2,200 and per sack of Bogura Sampa variety of Katharivog was sold at Tk2,600. Besides, per sack of BRRI-28 and BRRI-29 paddy and so-called Miniket was sold at Tk2,600 to Tk2,700. In last year, per sack of Boro paddy was sold at Tk1,700 to Tk2,000.
But, they raw paddy is being sold at lower price than dried paddy, they added.
Abdur Rahman, a farmer from Kamalpur of Sadar upazila, stated that the production cost for Boro paddy has increased this year due to irrigation and pesticides. Thats why the farmers had to expense much this year. Due to the impact of the higher cost, the farmers have selling their crops at higher price.
Most of the farmers have grown crops at leased-lands in this district. Some have grown at shared lands. After paying the lease money and meeting up the expenses of seeds, fertilizer, irrigation and pesticides, most farmers cannot get profits. Most of such farmers incur loss this year due the reasons. But, those who have own land are getting profits by selling crops.
Babul Akter, a farmer of Panikata of Fulbari, said that the price of paddy is much higher than the previous year, but it is still much lower than the Aman price. "But, the price of paddy has not increased comparing to the expenses for production."
Price of DAP, which was only Tk800 per sack, is now being sold at Tk1,2500 while Tk800 urea is now Tk1,000, Tk700 Potash is now Tk1,400. The farmers had to use fertilizer and spray pesticides much more than the previous years due to the repeated attack of insects. Taking the advantage, some errant traders have sold fertilizer and pesticides at higher price than the usual or government fixed.
Regarding the recent price hike of rice in the market, a rice trader of the district town told this correspondent preferring anonymity that they do not care whether price of paddy hiked or decreased.
They sell rice considering the market price of paddy in the market.
