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Paddy price rises on speculation

Sohel Parvez
Paddy prices have shot up on speculative production shortfall of Aman, the second biggest crop, because of late arrival of rain, pest attacks and delayed harvests, say market players.
Farmers became happy, at least a better price will help many of them overcome the fair price denial they faced during the immediate past Boro harvest season, but consumers are now to bear the brunt of paying extra to buy a kilogram of staple.
The rice market has responded to the hike this week, according to the official retail price data.
"Aman paddy is now selling at Tk 570 per maund (40 kilogram). It will at least enable me to sustain the unhappiness for receiving a low price during Boro season," said Sohel Khandoker, a farmer at Mahiganj, Rangpur.
Khandoker, who transplanted rain-fed Aman on about 8 acres of
land, said the present price would provide him a margin.
Growers, mainly marginal ones, say they were denied fair price due to some factors that include record output of Boro and slack government procurement drive.
Now paddy prices equal to, or cross Tk 14 a kg, the procurement price the government has fixed, but the farmers were forced to sell their produces at Tk 9.86-10.40 in June to traders when the government rate was in place but a sloth gripped the procurement.
Traders and millers say farmers started getting higher price since early this month after harvesting began in a full swing in different parts of the country, with many fearing a yield lower than their expectations.
"Yield per Bigha appears to be low. 1 anticipate many of my neighbours who fail to irrigate properly and encountered pest attacks will count low yield," said Mamtaz Hossain, a farmer at Mohadebpur,
Naogaon.
Like India, farmers in Bangladesh failed to transplant aman seedlings on time due to late arrival of monsoon this year. A late monsoon in September-October gave many farmers a slim chance to redeem aman prospect but at the same time pest attacks cast a gloomy scenario.
"The information we receive gives a bleak aman prospect due to low yield that has led to a price hike,” said Nirod Boron Saha, general secretary of Naogaon Dhan-o-Chal Aratdar Babosayee Samity, a trade body of paddy and rice wholesalers.
"The price of Aman paddy has increased to 120 per maund this year," he said, blaming late rain and drought which forced many farmers in Naogaon and other northern region to suspend aman transplantation.
Traders and rice millers are purchasing coarse variety of aman paddy at Tk 560- 580 per maund (40
kg) from farmers.
In some districts, where production is very low, prices have gone as high as Tk 600 a maund, said KM Layek Ali, convener of Bangladesh Rice Mills Association.
"There is no reason for price hike of paddy, except production shortfall. I hope, price will not spike too much in the days ahead,” said Abdur Rashid, managing director of Rashid Agro-food Products Ltd. a leading rice seller.
Md Sayeed Ali, director general of Department of Agricultural Extension, however differed with the view of rice traders and millers saying that aman output would not go below the previous year's.
"We rather expect to achieve the target of 1.27 crore tonnes of paddy output this year,” he said, citing that acreage stood at 55 lakh hectares this year from 54 lakh hectares a year ago.
In the previous year, aman output stood around 1.16 crore tonnes. sohel@thedailystar.net