Aman farming falls for last year's low prices

Farm labourers plant aman seedlings in a field at Azimpur village in Biral upazila of Dinajpur. Cultivation of the paddy has also decreased this year in the famous rice producing district.Photo: STAR

The area of aman cultivation during the ongoing season sees a decrease by 60,006 hectares of land in eight districts under Rangpur division as farmers did not get expected profit last year.
Against the backdrop of low price of the paddy last season coupled with high cost of fertilisers, seeds, and other agricultural inputs, farmers in Rangpur Agricultural Zone are a bit worried this year, DAE sources said.
Besides, area of cultivable lands is decreasing every year as a large portion of land is being used for brick kiln and other purposes including construction of houses, said Md Firoz Ahmed, deputy director of Rangpur Department of Agriculture Extansion (DAE).
Aman was cultivated on 10,84,074 hectares of land in 2011 and on 10,24,068 hectares of lands in 2012 in eight districts under Rangpur Agricultural Zone, DAE sources said.
District-wise, 1,51,608 hectares of land in Rangpur, 1,18,649 hectares in Gaibandha, 1,14,332 hectares in Kurigram, 80,488 hectares in Lalmonirhat, 1,09,039 hectares in Nilphamari, 2,38,253 hectares in Dinajpur, 1,25,937 hectares in Thakurgaon and 85,766 hectares of lands in Panchagarh district under Rangpur division have been brought under aman cultivation, DAE sources said.
Farmers have started transplanting seedlings. Many of them cultivated early variety of aman.
But price hike of urea and added cost for seeds, pesticides and labour have appeared as matter of concern for farmers.
Several farmers have expressed fear that low quality and germ affected seeds and spurious fertilisers may hamper the production this season.
"Many farmers are losing interest in cultivating aman this year as they incurred losses last year," said Shahajaha Ali, 50, a farmer of Machhari village under Kaunia upazila in Rangpur district.
Farmers of different districts and upazilas echoed the same.
Cultivation of IRRI-boro in the last season also turned out to be unprofitable, farmers said.
Agriculture experts have urged the government to ensure fair prices of paddy.
Our Dinajpur Correspondent Kongkon Karmakar adds: The Department Agriculture Extension (DAE) has set a target to produce 6,94,625 tonnes of aman from around 2.38 lakh hectares of land in the famous rice producing district.
However, memory of losses incurred during the last two consecutive aman and Irri-boro seasons still haunts the farmers.
"In last Irri-boro season, I cultivated paddy on 13 bigha of land and spent around Tk 12,000 for each bigha. But I incurred loss of Tk 3,000 per bigha," said Zahangir Alam, a farmer of Uttar Shibpur village under Dinajpur Sadar upazila.
Each 75kg sack of paddy sold at Tk 950 to 1020 at the local market but the cultivation cost had been much higher, farmers said.
Around 1.8 lakh hectares of land was brought under IRRI-boro farming in last season and production was around 6.9 lakh tonnes of rice, which was a record rice production in the district, DAE sources said.
But the farmers incurred losses in absence of a proper marketing policy of the government, said an official of Dinajpur DAE.