Ensuring a better deal for farmers

Media reports have it that boro is sold below its production cost this season. While cost of production of a metric tonne of boro was around Tk 20,000 on an average, its market price is Tk13,500 now.
Excessive cultivation and yield, import of huge quantity of cheaper Indian rice and delayed procurement drive are to blame. But what tops the list is powerlessness of farmers to the manipulation of middlemen. The market is fully controlled by mill owners and middlemen.
The volume of rice imported from India increased by 50 per cent over that of last year. This did not help the cause. The import was worth US$770 millions from July to March last year while the import volume during the corresponding period of this year was worth US$1050 millions. A 10 per cent import duty was later imposed to keep the market steady but the damage was already done.    
The government's procurement programme went underway from 1st May and is to continue up to 31st August. Farmers could not avail of the opportunity since they already sold off almost 80 per cent of their product before the government procurement drive took off in May. Middlemen and traders took advantage of the delayed start, bought from the farmers at a cheaper rate and sold back the same to the government at a higher price. Had the government started its procurement programme in March instead of May, farmers would not have been compelled to sell their products at a lower price and would have got a fairer deal.
As a matter of fact, farmers in this part of the world do not get a fair price for their products. During the Pakistan period farmers were deprived of a fair price for jute and were compelled to sell the same at a throwaway price. Things continued in the same vein in independent Bangladesh also and now farmers have almost given up cultivation of jute.   
To pull the farmers out of the quagmire of the artificially lowered price cycle, it requires a prudent action plan by the government. First of all, the undue dominance of the middlemen and mill owners in fixing the product price must be curbed. The growers should be extended financial assistance so that they can hold the product longer and control the price. Import requirement, if needed, should be judiciously calculated along with duty structure for the same and permission should be accorded in a manner that the market is not flooded forcing a scale-down in prices. Finally, procurement drive by the government should be started at the right time so that farmers get a better price and the middlemen and mill owners cannot influence the selling price. Much actually depends on the well-being of farmers of the country and if their lot is not improved, economic development will be a far-fetched goal for the country.
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