[caption id="attachment_4371" align="aligncenter" width="1014"]
File Photo[/caption]
GFMM desk: Fear of floods has subsided, most of the paddy has been harvested. New wet paddy from different districts of Haor has started rising in big places including Ashuganj. But the price of paddy has been falling rapidly for three days. Debt burden on the head, Eid ahead, other income is also closed. So the money from selling paddy is now a big help to the farmers. But if the price goes down, the farmers will not be able to raise the cost of production. Paddy is now being sold at half the price fixed by the government.
Last Monday (May 4, 2020), Ashuganj, the largest selling place for paddy in the country's haor and central region, was seen, with farmers sitting frustrated at not being able to sell it.
Talking to Habibur Rahman, a farmer from Ashuganj in Brahmanbaria. He is selling 306 maunds of wet paddy at the price of 540 maunds. Talking about sudden reduction in price, the sale of paddy stopped. Later, Habibur sold the paddy for Rs 520. It is the largest rice market in the Haoranchal region of the country. Paddy farmers and traders from different districts including Brahmanbaria, Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Sunamganj, Sylhet, Habiganj brought to this ghat by water.
Thousands of maunds of paddy are sold daily at the leather seaport of Karimganj in Kishoreganj. Monirul Islam, a farmer who came there to sell paddy, said that even though the government had fixed the price at Tk 1,040, they had to sell it at Tk 600 to 650.
This time Boro paddy has got good yield in Haor. In the Corona situation, there was a fear of harvesting paddy on time and taking it home, but that obstacle has been removed through the joint efforts of all. However, farmers are not satisfied with the price of hard-earned paddy.
The government has decided to procure Boro paddy at the rate of Tk 1,040 per quintal. This paddy will be collected by selecting farmers through lottery. Although the program was supposed to start from April 26, it has not started in any district of the haor area. The work of making list of farmers is going on in most of the districts.
But the farmers are selling paddy in the wholesale market due to the demand for payment of wages and loans of the workers. The price there is 500 to 700 rupees.
Sylhet District Food Controller (Acting) Manoj Kanti Das Chowdhury said paddy would be procured as per the list. If the farmer on the list does not transfer his card to someone else, the middlemen will not be able to take advantage.
Source: Online/SZK
Comment Now