Although farmers are facing a hike in input costs since the beginning of the Boro paddy cultivation, field reports of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) are indicating that the Boro cultivation anchorage is likely to increase this year.
Experts said the losses incurred by the farmers in winter vegetables as well as a comparatively better price of paddy in the last Aman season have encouraged farmers to prefer Boro paddy cultivation in the ongoing season to the cultivation of other crops, reports UNB.
According to the Field Service Wing (FSW) of DAE, about 50 per cent of transplantation target of Boro paddy has completed so far this season against about 40 per cent coverage of the target achieved during the same period of the season last year.
Earlier, the acreage target for Boro paddy cultivation this season was fixed at 4.8 million hectares, and the production target at 18.9 million tonnes. The country produced about 18.75 million tonnes of Boro paddy in the last season over the same extent of land.
This season, the Boro transplantation ran smother compared to that of the previous one as the incidents of cold injuries to seedbeds are relatively lower, said agriculture officials from different regions.
According to FSW, the extent of seedbeds so far affected with cold injuries will not affect the targeted cultivation in the end because the acreage of seedbeds has already exceeded the target.
So far, 4.2 lakh hectares of seedbeds have been prepared against the target of 4 lakh hectares.
Talking to the news agency, DAE Director General Abu Hanif Miah said a comparatively better price of Aman paddy during October-November last year has encouraged the farmers to go for Boro cultivation this year. "Unless there is any severe unexpected climatic event, we're going to achieve the target of production this season," he said.
However, at the onset of the Boro cultivation, farmers faced a fresh hike of the cost of inputs, including seed, irrigation, fertiliser and labour.
M Shahadat Hossain, a farmer from Durgapur village in Rangpur sadar upazila, said the prices of both the urea and the non-urea fertilisers have shoot up due to uncertainties in the supply over the last two months.
"Farmers cannot buy the fertiliser at the fair price. The actual price of urea is Tk 16 per kg, while we're forced to pay about Tk 20-22 per kg." he said.
Shahadat added that the labour cost was extremely high. "The payment for farm labour shot up during the Aman harvesting season two months back and it never dropped since then. This year, in the Boro season, we'll have to pay higher during both the plantation period and the harvesting period."
The seeds are also costing higher this season, he said, adding that farmers had to spend at least Tk 100 more than the actual price to buy per 10 kg seeds from the market.
Bangladesh Krishak Samity President Morshed Ali said irrigation cost in some areas of the country will shoot up by 30-40 per cent this season compared to that of the previous season as the irrigation pump owners have already started to charge that much higher.
A Brac survey conducted in November last year showed that despite the hike in input cost, most of the farmers will increase the cultivation of food grains, including rice, wheat and maize, rather than going for the cultivation of vegetables that has already been considered risky given the recent political uncertainties.
Farmers faced huge losses as the supply chain of perishable items like vegetables were jeopardised for months amid the recent blockades on rail, road and highways across the country.
Brac executive director Mahbub Hossain said, "The study shows that the farmers shift a bit from the comparatively profitable cultivation of vegetables to the cultivation of rice, thought rice farming over the years has not been able to ensure the farmers with a minimum 50 percent profit margin."
