Boro cultivation begins
Even though they are worried about low prices like last year, farmers in the district are passing busy time preparing fields and planting boro paddy saplings.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Pirojpur, boro paddy is mostly grown in Pirojpur Sadar, Nazirpur and Nesarabad upazilas.
As Nazirpur and some parts of Pirojpur Sadar and Nesarabad remain under water for most of the year, farmers can grow only boro paddy in the winter season.
Farmers started planting boro paddy around three to four weeks ago, and it will be completed within a few weeks. Ufshi, hybrid and local varieties of boro paddy are grown in the district, of which ufshi is the most cultivated.
But farmers are worried when they remember the low price of boro paddy in the previous years.
“We have to spend around Tk 20,000 to plant boro paddy on one bigha of land, but we cannot make desired profit,” said Rafikul Islam, a cultivator from Jujkhola village under Pirojpur Sadar upazila.
“We have to sell our paddy at low price in the market as we cannot sell it to the government directly,” said Mizanur Rahman, another farmer of the village.
“When we go to the government storehouse for selling boro paddy, they refuse to buy from us, saying that the paddy is not suitable for storing,” said another farmer Sheikh Jalal. “As it is our profession, we cannot give up cultivating paddy,” he added.
Some land owners have already given up cultivating their land as they had suffered losses.
“I have not been cultivating my land for the last few years,” said Mojibor Rahman Khan adding that he has leased his three bighas of land to others.
Farmers are demanding that the government buy paddy directly from them to save them from losses.
Deputy Director (DD) of DAE in Pirojpur Md Abul Hossain Talukder said 20,520 hectares of lands have been targeted to be cultivated this year, yielding 85,595 tonnes of rice. Last year, 86,991 tonnes of rice were produced from 19,581 hectares of land.
The DD said that this year the weather is very favourable for cultivating boro paddy as there has not been dense fog anywhere in the district.
“Around 50 percent of the targeted lands have been planted and we expect that our yield target will be fulfilled this year,” he added.
“We hope that farmers will get their expected price of boro paddy,” he said.
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