PABNA, Sept 6: Jute growers in the district are becoming frustrated due to high labour cost and fall in jute price in the district. For this the cultivation of jute has decreased in the district.
Growers said they were reluctant to cultivate jute this season due to a fall in the prices of the fibre last year.
Md. Mostafizur Rahman, Deputy Director of DAE said this season a target was fixed to cultivate jute on 39,547 hectares against the target of 43,055 bales in the district this year. But the farmers cultivated only 35,205 hectares this season.
Officials at the local office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), however, attributed it to an extensive increase in cultivation of maize and other Robi crops in the region.
Prices of jute have fallen by Tk 400 to Tk700 per maund (40 kg) this year. Jute is now being sold at Tk 1,200 to Tk1,400 per maund while it sold at Tk 1,600 to Tk 2,000 last year in the local markets of the district.
On the other hand, many farmers are not even cutting and rotting jute plants due to increased labour cost. Per head labour for jute cutting and rotting is Tk 350 Tk 400.
Farmer Swapan Kumar Sarkar of Matiabaria village in Pabna Sadar Upazila said he cultivated jute on two bighas of his land this year but incurred loss. He said production cost of jute went up due to high labour cost much to the worry of the growers of the district.
Monwar Mollah of Sarabaria village under Atghoria Upazila said, "I grew jute on two bighas of land this year as I had made a good profit by farming it last year." "But I am incurring losses this year, although I have got a bumper production of jute," he said, and called upon the government to ensure fair price of the crop.
Deputy Director of DAE said if farmers rot jute using ribbon rating method they will get high quality jute fibre. A total of 7,000 machines were distributed among farmers of the district to rot jute using the newly introduced method, he said.
