Poor and marginal farmers and sharecroppers keep facing trouble as they need to buy rice for higher prices after having sold the rice they would produce for low prices at the time of harvest. Market source said farmers were buying boro for prices between Tk 540 and Tk 600 a maund (37.3kg) but they sold it for prices between Tk 400 and Tk 430 soon after harvest. Most of the poor and marginal farmers said they were forced to sell their produces for prices lower than their production cost to meet their needs and repay loans they had taken before harvest in May.

Middle-class farmers could stock their rice, but small and marginal farmers could not do so as they needed to run their family with they could earn by selling the rice. ‘I had to sell rice for Tk 430 a maund as I do not have the facility for storage and I needed to repay loans and run my family. I kept a stock for only four months. I have used up the stock and I have now borrowed money and I am buying rice for Tk 520 a maund to run my family,’ said Hossain Mollah, a poor farmer of Nikli in Kishoreganj.

The research division chief at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Uttam Dev, said it was a common phenomenon and he stressed the need for keeping prices of food grains, especially rice, stable. ‘The government should increase loan programmes for food silos and increase the amount of rice procurement during harvest to control price fluctuation,’ he said. The New Age correspondent in Rangpur said farmers in the north had sold out their yield of rice during harvest for lower prices. They are now buying rice for higher prices.

Habibullah Miah, a farmer of Nandiganj in the Rangpur district headquarters, told New Age he had grown IRRI and boro on a bigha (a third of an acre) of land. He had to spend about Tk 3,500 on production. He had to take loans to irrigate the field, buy fertiliser and pesticide. He could harvest 22 maunds of rice and he had to sell the rice soon after harvest for Tk 400 a maund to repay the loans. Now he needs to buy rice for Tk 20 a kilogram, and it means he needs to spend about Tk 750 on a maund of rice. ‘The cost of the farming increases every year and we could not save any rice for the lean period,’ Habibullah said.

Sharecropper Abdul Mannaf of Dhusmara, a remote char in the River Teesta at Kaunia in Rangpur, said he had grown boro on 24 decimals of land. He could harvest 20 maunds of rice and gave a half to the owner of the land. He needed to spend about Tk 3,000 on farming and in doing so, he needed to take loans. Soon after harvest, he sold the rice for Tk 400 a maund to repay the loans and to grow aman on the piece of land. ‘I have no job in hand now as the harvest is about a month away. I borrowed two maunds of rice from a rice bank set up by the non-governmental organisation Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Services.’

The correspondent in Jaipurhat said after harvest, farmers were very upset about the low price of boro and sold the produce for prices between Tk 400 and 420 Tk a maund. The farmers are now buying rice for prices between Tk 600 and Tk 650 a maund. Akbar Ali, a farmer of the Jaipurhat district headquarters, said boro production was good, but they could earn not much by selling their yield. He was forced to sell the rice he produced for lower prices to pay the labourers who worked on his field. The correspondent in Kushtia reported a similar situation. Rice prices started increasing only in October, and the prices have increased by Tk 2 to Tk 5 on a kilogram.

The government bought boro paddy for Tk 14 a kilogram and rice for Tk 22 a kilogram. Prices on the market at the time ranged between Tk 24 and Tk 30 depending on the varieties. The prices have now increased to Tk 28 to Tk 34, according to market sources. Farmers earlier hurriedly sold out their rice in view of a forecast in April that because of decline in prices, farmers might not be able to recover even the production cost from the sales of their yield. And the paddy and the rice finally reached the millers and hoarders. Wholesalers are now selling rice for higher prices and farmers, especially the poor and marginal farmers, continue to be in trouble.

-New Age