Veg growers take brunt of hartals, blockades
Vegetable growers in the district have incurred a huge loss due to a drastic fall in prices of their produce in wholesale markets in the last few weeks for political unrest, including hartals and blockades.
Four wholesale markets--Barinagar-Satmail under Sadar upazila, Chaugachha Bazar, Rajganj Bazar in Monirampur upazia of Jessore and Barobazar in Jhenidah--meet a great demand for vegetables across the country.
Buyers from different areas come to these markets, collect vegetables and supply them to different places, including Dhaka. But poor presence of buyers due to political unrest forced the growers to sell vegetables at throwaway prices.
During a recent visit to Barinagar-Satmail wholesale market, this correspondent saw eggplant was being sold at Tk 3 to 5 per kg, while one cabbage, weighing about 1.5 kilogram at Tk 6, beans at Tk 2 to 3 per kg and radish at Tk 1 to 2 a kg.
Mikail Hossain of Shalkona village under Sharsha upazila said they had to count huge losses in the last few weeks as vegetable prices came down drastically. ''We sold cauliflower at Tk 11 per kg, green chili at Tk 25 per kg, tomato at Tk 30 per kg, and papaya at Tk 5 per kg,” he said, adding that they could not even recover the price of insecticides used in their fields by selling vegetables.
Sirajul Islam, lessee of Barinagar vegetable market, said 35/40 truckloads of vegetables are being sent to the capital and other districts across the country from the wholesale market on Sundays and Thursdays. During blockades, the number of trucks on the days was reduced to 15, he added.
Before blockades, around 20/25 vegetable-laden trucks were sent to different markets across the country on the other days of a week, but the number was reduced to 10 during blockades, he further said.
Jessore district office of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has fixed the vegetable production target at 3 lakh tonnes from 15,000 hectares of land in the district this season.
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