Low prices of crops fade farmers’ Eid joy
Allam Hossain had option for coping with his family’s Eid expenses by selling half the amount of paddy he harvested this season.
The 45-year-old farmer of Edolpur village in Rajshahi’s Godagari upazila decided to avoid selling paddy witnessing its falling prices.
The father of two sons thought he would wait for a satisfactory price while he would survive the Eid expenses by selling some mangoes of the four trees he owns.
His luck betrayed when he took his mangoes to local market on the two days before Eid and returned home bare-handed failing to find a buyer.
“Mangoes lost demand ahead of Eid. None even asked me for prices in the market. I took all of those back home twice,” Allam said in emotionless voice.
He then borrowed money for buying two kilograms of beef, a delicious dish for Muslims during celebrations in this continent, for bringing smile to his family members on the Eid day.
Allam Hossain was lucky that he could manage some beef, what many other farmers and those belonging to low-income groups failed to afford.
A steep fall in the prices of litchis and mangoes during Eid holidays stunned many of Rajshahi’s farmers and low-income groups who had been already reeling in the falling prices of paddy.
And the low prices kept them far away from Eid celebration. Many of them shunned at the thoughts of buying delicious dishes during Eid while buying new dresses was a luxury that they must avoid.
According to the farmers, the production of a maund of Boro paddy cost them at least Tk 800 and they barely find the prices above Tk 650. The litchis which were sold at Tk 350 per hundred last year and Tk 250 just a week ago, were sold between Tk 100 and Tk 150 ahead of Eid. The mangoes that appeared in local markets with price tags of Tk 1,800 per maund went down to Tk 1,000 from Tk 1,200 before Eid.
The low prices forced many of the farmers to celebrate Eid on a limited scale while the Eid day was nothing more than any other day for many of them.
Eid in the city was marked by colours with people in new attire, speeding luxury vehicles and ear-blowing sound of modern sound systems. But an uncanny silence prevailed outside the city where the just-reaped paddy is stacked in farmers’ courtyards.
Along the Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj highway where Rajshahi city ends, the territory of Horipur village of Poba upazila begins. Almost every vacant place of this village was found filled with stacks of just-harvested paddy.
When called, Shahjahan Ali, a share cropper of the village, came out of home clipping buttons of his faded ash coloured shirt. Asked about his Eid, he said, “Eid bears no meaning for farmers. This day is no different from other days.”
The only difference was that the 48-year-old farmer bought some vermicelli and a silver carp fish for his family.
Shahjahan got 11 maunds of paddy from share cropping two bighas of land this season. He spent at least Tk 800 for producing a maund of paddy, but he was offered no more than Tk 600. “If I sell a maund of paddy, I can buy one kilogram of beef with the price but I can’t buy the spices for cooking it,” he said.
“And if I sell from the paddy, what will I eat round the year?” He said he didn’t sell the paddy, rather decided to stack it and wait for better price.
He could buy new clothing for none of his mother, wife, a son and daughter-in-law and kept his Eid celebration limited to having the vermicelli and the fish.
Some other share croppers of the village shared similar stories of their limited celebration.
Visiting the Edolpur village, 25 kilometres off Rajshahi city, this correspondent saw Baby Khatun, wife of farmer Shahjahan Monu, was frying pointed gourd at noon on the Eid day.
“My husband bought a broiler chicken. I cooked the chicken and made some polao. Now, I’m frying the pointed gourd to add some taste to our meal,” Baby Khatun said with a shy smile that is familiar among rural Bangalee women.
Clad in a bright red printed cotton saree, she was in her kitchen while her high school going daughter in a similar cheap red and white attire was gossiping with friends standing under a tree nearby.
“My husband bought me and my daughter these clothes during the Eid in last year. These dresses are still like new as we seldom wore them. As he couldn’t buy us any new dress this Eid, we used these as our Eid dresses,” Baby Khatun said providing an impression to this correspondent that she was satisfied.
When asked where her husband is, she said he went out of home in the morning as he was upset for not being able to provide them with new clothing.
“He’s nearby. I sent my two sons to bring their father home so that we can enjoy the lunch together,” Baby Khatun said.
She said her husband Shahjahan Monu got 10.5 maunds of paddy from 15 kathas of land. “If we could sell some of it in fair price, our eid day would’ve been better,” she said, adding that her two sons who are day labourers paid for the broiler chicken.
Unlike Allam or Monu, Soiyabur Rahman is an almost solvent farmer of the village. He too avoided selling off paddy and stacked his 52 maunds of paddy at his courtyard waiting for a better price. He married off his only daughter just ahead of the Eid. For his eid expenditure, he had to borrow Tk 20,000 as well.
“Low prices of crops have broken the backbone of farmers. I’m in doubt whether I should cultivate paddy any more,” he said.
He informed some 25 families out of 65 of Edolpur village couldn’t manage beef this eid. Some 30 families who managed had to buy a cattle from local Rajabarihat by paying Tk 1,000 each. And the rest of the villagers bought beef from local markets.
The price deprivation of farmers cannot, however, stop the eid celebration of their children. The young and adolescents of villages hired three wheelers to speed on the vacant highways. With the vehicles on full throttle and high volume music on rented speakers, the youths made jubilation, and danced on the running vehicles. The sorrows of their parents got lost into the depth of their madness.
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