RAJSHAHI, Aug 1: Not for earning profit but for consuming 'home made rice' with family members, farmers of Barind region are now-a-days cultivating paddy.
Farmers informed that the production cost of paddy at the Barind region has increased manifold. As a result, they are not earning profit from harvesting paddy rather they are incurring loss.
The situation is prevailing for the last several years and farmers of the region are now thinking that there will be no further profit in cultivating paddy here. As a result, farmers were inclined to cultivate other crops and fruits in their land which are comparatively profitable.
It is learnt, by cultivating paddy many farmers of the region have now been entangled in the net of loan from NGOs and from the banks. Many of them were being forced to sell the newly harvested paddy to repay loans.
Since the newly harvested paddy sells at a very low price, farmers were incurring loss by selling those. It has been noticed that after long three months' hard labour at the field and enduring tension, a paddy farmer got only 'straws' as profit.
Subol Das (50), a farmer of village Talondo of Tanore upazila informed, farmers harvest 20 maunds of paddy at the highest from one bigha of land.
Out of 20 maunds of harvest, four maunds of paddy are given as charge for paddy reaping and threshing labourers, 20 kilograms are given to the owner of threshing machine while five kilograms are paid to the operator of deep tubewell. After paying all the utility costs, only 15 maunds and 15 kilograms of paddy are left for the farmer. The price of the same at the present market is Tk 8,500 (Tk 550 per maund).
Abdul Khaleque (55), an experienced paddy farmer of Saronjoy village under Tanore upazila said it requires Tk 8,500 to cultivate paddy in a bigha of land. Of the total cost Tk 1,000 is spent for purchasing seeds, preparing seed bed and growing saplings, Tk 1,000 more is required to ploughing four times a bigha of land, Tk 100 is required for levelling (harrowing) the soil. It also requires at least Tk 1,000 to pay four labourers for transplanting paddy saplings in the field and Tk 250 is required to make the land-boundary.
After a week or two, Tk 600 is required to weeding the land. The highest cost for the paddy cultivation involves in irrigation which is Tk 2,000 and Tk 1,440 more is required for applying fertiliser and Tk 600 is required to use insecticides and grass killer chemical. At last Tk 500 is required to hire trolley for carrying harvested paddy in the house of the farmer.
The above account of cost for cultivating paddy and selling the harvested paddy shows the production cost and selling price of harvested paddy from one bigha of land is the same.
So the question was asked to Sabet Ali (48), a neighbour of Abdul Khaleque that if there was no profit, why did the farmers of Barind region cultivate paddy? He answered there was no profit in cultivating paddy-only to eat 'home made rice from own field' farmers of the region cultivate paddy. The profit from the cultivation of paddy is only straw. A farmer gets 1500 to 2000 bundles of straw from a bigha of land and the farmer earns Tk 1,500 to 2,000 by selling those straws.
Hazrat Ali, Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension informed that the cultivation of paddy at the Barind region is costly. Still many of the farmers were cultivating paddy. He said the government was purchasing paddy at a higher rate from the farmers to recoup their loss.
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