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Nilphamari farmers upset over low boro prices

Our Correspondent, Nilphamari
Bumper yield of boro paddy has failed to please farmers this year as they aren't getting fair prices due to an absence of buyers. Some of them are even compelled to sell paddy at a loss to middlemen.
Sources in Nilphamari's Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) office said they set a target to cultivate boro paddy on 82,180 hectares of land this year with a production target of 5.15 lakh metric tonnes, which is likely to be exceeded.
By this time, 30% of paddy, mostly of the BRRI dhan-28, has been harvested and the rest, including the high yielding, hybrid and local varieties, will be harvested in a couple of weeks.
These days, at markets including Dhelapeer, Ramganj, Tengonmari, farmers wait with their paddy for a long time to sell as there are few buyers from auto rice mills or paddy traders from other districts.
There were only a few middlemen or brokers looking for an opportunity to buy paddy at throw- away prices, which the farmers have no alternative but to
accept in order to repay the NGO loans.
Farmer Atiqur Rahman, 35, of Poolhat village in Sadar upazila, said he brought five maunds of BRRI-dhan 28 paddy to Dhelapeer market on Friday. "I had to pay Tk 200 to the rickshaw van puller to carry the paddy to market from my home, and if I return with unsold paddy I'll need to pay Tk 200 more. So, I sold all the paddy at Tk 450 per maund to a husking mill owner," he added.
DAE sources in Nilphamari said that according to their official estimates, the production cost of boro per bigha is Tk 14.5 thousand, including the cost of seeds, fertilizer, tilling, sowing, weeding, pesticide, harvesting, etc. The maximum yield in that area is 20 maunds and the production cost for a maund stands asTk 725.
A maund of good quality paddy is now being sold at a maximum of Tk 500, causing a loss of at least Tk 225 per maund.
Emdadul Islam, a well-established farmer of Paschim Satnai village in Dimla upazila lamented that there is scarcity of day labourers in the area as they went to the cities in search of jobs,
which means the daily wage of a labourer is very high locally, surprisingly equal to the selling price of a maund of paddy.
Farmer Abdul Gaffar of Balagram village in laldhaka upazila said that many farmers like him have no skills for any job other than farming and so they can't leave agriculture and somehow survive ignoring consecutive losses, relying on their own and family labour.
President of the district automatic rice mill owners association Raquibul Alam said that big buyers are not purchasing paddy now as the newly harvested paddy contains a lot of moisture and weight loss might be 5-8 kg per maund when it becomes dry after few weeks, leading to financial loss.
"Moreover, the government is selling rice in the open market atTk 15 per kg, which is playing a role in the downward trend in paddy prices," he added.
SM Idris, deputy director of the district DAE, expressed optimism saying that boro farmers are getting bumper yield and will get fair prices as soon as the government's boro procurement drive starts.