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Paddy, rice buyers inadequate, growers use barter system
LALMONIRHAT, Dec 23: Absence of adequate buyers at the peak of the current harvesting season has forced hundreds of farmers in the ricegrowing northern districts to resort to archaic barter system. reports UNB.
Rice or paddy took the place of cash money as mode of payment in many hats and bazars, according to news despatches from major rice producing pockets of the greater Rangpur district.
Farmers are being compelled to procure their daily necessities in exchange of rice, and the practice is reportedly giving the 'Pariahs' (middlemen) the chance to bring down the price level for rice to a rock-bottom level.
In Lalmonirhat district, ricc-producing areas like Char Dawabari, flaldibari, Shfnduna, Kctakibari. Naudabas, Gaddimari, Bankanda are places where such barter is now rampant and peasants reportedly have fallen prey to unscrupulous 'Pariahs'.
Farmers tn some places attributed the situation to inadequate intervention by the government in purchasing paddy during current season which has Werf a record harvest. &C cording to local people.
Prices have come down to an abnormally low level as a result of insufficient government purchases which normally in-
fluence the market. In- many places a maund of paddy is being sold at Taka 120 to Taka 130 while in case of barter deals, farmers are getting a maximum Taka 90.
UNB correspondent in Lalmonirhat found desperate farmers tn many areas were procuring a litre of kerosine in exchange of 8 to 10 kilograms of paddy and One bag of TSP fertilizer, which cost Tk 450. in exchange of four maunds of paddy.
Most of the farmers arc to return home with 70 per cent of their paddy they brought for selling at Daikhawa hat under Hatijhanga thana of Lalmonirhat because of scarce buyers.
Farmers alleged that the authorities of different rice godowns in Lalmonirhat and adjoining districts are virtually not procuring rice on the pretext that the godowns are already stockpiled. The government's directive to procure only fine quality of rice has provided another Justification for meagre purchase.
Many a godowns have not yet begun procurement. Officials in Bhotmari godown said t|iey arc pot in a position lb purchase any grain as there is already 570 metric tons of paddy in their stock against their capacity to hold only 500 tons.
According to lalmonirhat
Agriculture Department, share of fine rice would not be more than four per cent of the total production in the district.
The government has set a target of procuring only 2 lakh tons of paddy tn the current aman season against last year's target of 3.65 lakh tons. Procurement price this year has also been revised down ward from Taka 245 per maund to Taka 210.
The decision came as a blow to the country's farmers, specially when the government has withdrawn almost all the subsidies from agriculture inputs, according to local farmers' lobby.
The government action has also been seen by many observers as being totally in contradiction to its pronounced policy for providing adequate price support to farmers.
Finance Minister Saifur Rahman at the last World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington In September told the donors that the government is correcting output market imperfections that deny remunerative prices to farmers. -
World Bank President Lewis Preston, who visited phaka last mon th. parried a question’ from a Bangladeshi correspondent seeking his comment on the deprivation of the farmers. "Wc hope that agricultural prices would soon respond to
market forces,” Preston said.
Meanwhile, as fertilizer prices -have been on the increase because of withdrawal of subsidy as well as absence of fair price for farm productions, farmers apprehend a drastic fall in the output of HYV paddy in the next season. Some quarters even fear production may drop by about 50 per cent.
One Bacchu Mia of village Shaghati under KaliganJ thana in Lalmonirhat said he had earmarked only 10 bighas for cultivation of HYV paddy for next season Instead of 33 bighas last season.
Majority of the farmers in the village told the UNB correspondent that this year they have planned to cut the area of land for growing HYV paddy, popularly known as IRRI.
Farmers said total expenditures, including cost of fertilizer and irrigation, for growing per maund of HYV paddy is about Taka 145 while the current market price of rice is Taka 120 per maund.
They Informed that with the fall in prices of Jute, paddy and ground nut. value of farmland in many a northern districts showed a downward trend in recent months.
In the villages of Lalmonirhat, a bigha of land is now selling between Taka 10,000 and 12,000 while it was Taka 20.000 last year.