Due to drought in Sunamganj, extra water has to be supplied to the Boro paddy fields. As a result, the expenditure faced by the farmers is rising. In addition to this, the farmers had to incur heavy expenses for buying seeds, fertiliser, weed cleaning, hoeing and for paying labourers.
Unfortunately, the farmers are not getting the right price and are facing losses. Local representatives claim that if the government had bought rice on time, this precarious situation would not have happened.
One farmer laments: “Irrigation cost has risen and overall expenditure has been high; I spent Tk 24 thousand for cultivating paddy and got 40 mounds, which, as per local market rate stands at Tk 24000. However, the government fixed rate is 41600.”
Since the government did not buy the paddy on time, people are selling the rice to the local markets, incurring a loss of Tk 17600.
Salma Akhter, a farmer adds: “To clean the weeds and to plant seeds, I had to pay Tk. 300 to workers along with providing food; since there was scarcity of workers, I had to hire workers at a high rate.”
Other farmers say they had to take loan on high interest which they used to buy seeds and carry out plantation.
Within the next one month, we have to sell the rice and pay back the loan, they say.
“If we do not pay back the loan, we will not be able to get any loans in the future.”
Tahirpur Upazila Chairman Karuna Sindhu Chowdhury Babul said: “We have to think about the farmers in the haor ares and ensure loans, advice plus essential equipment for them.”
According to the district agriculture extension office some 300,000 farmers cultivated Boro rice over 224,440 hectares of land this year.