High farming cost worries Tangail boro growers
Farmers in the district, who are now busy sowing boro paddy saplings in their fields, are worried over the increasing cultivation costs without any increase in prices of their produce.
Though cost of paddy cultivation increased with increasing prices of fertilisers and wages of labourers, paddy prices have not increased, farmers said.
Farmer Nizam Uddin of Charabari area in Tangail Sadar upazila said he did not get any profit from the paddy he cultivated on his four bighas of land last season due to low market prices.
“This year, I am cultivating boro paddy as I have no option. What can I do? I can't leave my land unused as I have to feed my family,” he added.
Abdus Samad of Sadullapur village said, “We farmers are really helpless as we don't know anything but farming.” “I have been working as farmer for the last 40 years and I am tired as agriculture is very hard work,” he added.
Abdul Kader of Elasin in Delduar upazila said they did not get fair prices for the paddy last year despite working hard along with their family members for about four months, from readying the seedbeds to drying paddy after harvesting.
Shahin Miah of Tangail town grew paddy on eight acres of land at Kamarthi and Charan villages in Kalihati upazila last season. He said he was left with almost nothing after selling the paddy and paying the cultivation costs.
According to Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Tangail Abul Hashim, boro paddy was cultivated on 1,66,062 hectares of land in 12 upazilas of the district last year, while it was 1,70,082 hectares in 2014. The target for this season is 1,68,000 hectares.
Sowing of boro saplings starts from the first week of January and continues till the second week of February, agriculture officials said, adding that it will increase after completion of mustard harvesting from the fields.
Hashim said the local farmers can solve their problems on their own, adding that field level agriculture officials were working with them.
Comments