Inflation hurting landless farmers in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram
Sixty-year-old Mansur Ali, who has no arable land apart from his homestead on 15 decimals land.
For the last 30 years, the farmer from Bangram village along the Dharla river basin area under Mogolhat union in Sadar upazila has been cultivating other's land as a sharecropper.
Like him, sharecroppers Sekender Ali, 62, Rahim Mia, 58, Narayan Chandra Barman,60, and Taher Ali, 50, of the village have been cultivating other's land for years.
Though all of them had a good yield of Aman paddy this year, they don't have any smile on their faces.
"We have a good yield of Aman this year, but still had to count loss due to the drought like situation,"
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram, about two and a half lakhs families in different upazilas of the two districts are involved in cultivating various crops.
Of them, more than 90,000 farmers are sharecroppers and cultivate others land.
Besides, almost all the sharecroppers engage their family members in the field in order to save labourer cost.
Another sharecropper Mansur Ali of the village said he has been cultivating five bighas of land for several years now.
According to the agreement, the landowner gets one-third of the produced crop while the sharecropper receives the rest two-third, though the latter bears all the expenses including seeds, fertiliser and irrigation cost, he said.
"We have a good yield of Aman this year, but still had to count loss due to the drought like situation," Mansur said.
As there was not enough rain this year, farmers had to spent additional Tk 1800 to Tk 2000 for irrigating each bigha land, he added.
Farmer Narayan Chandra said, "We are still surviving because we do not employ any hired labourer, rather all our family members put their labour in the field."
Lalmonirhat DAE Deputy Director Hamidur Rahman said the landless farmers across the country have to work tirelessly to make ends meet.
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