Anwar Ali, Rajshahi

The new diesel price is driving up crop production cost by at least 30 percent in Rajshahi region and the farmers are fearing huge losses.

They said harvesting of Aman, now ongoing, and winter vegetables and Boro production would be affected as the farmers mostly depend on diesel-run machines to cultivate, irrigate, and harvest.

To explain the blow they have been dealt, they said if a farmer, for instance, used to spend Tk 100 for an hour of irrigation, he or she would now need to spend Tk 130. If they had spent Tk 300 for cultivating, now they would have to spend Tk 450. If they had spent Tk 150 to transport produce of one bigha of land, now they would need to spend Tk 200, said farmers.

It does not end there.

The farmers used to pay paddy threshers with 10kg of paddy for every bigha’s harvest they processed. Now the threshers are asking for 20kg.

They said that the additional burden of production cost would make them poorer.