Good crop, great despair

Vegetables growers in Dinajpur stare at colossal losses this season despite bumper crops failing to sell their produce at fair prices.

Dinajpur CorrespondentMorshedur Rahman, bdnews24.com
Published : 22 Dec 2013, 04:40 PM
Updated : 22 Dec 2013, 04:40 PM

This year political unrest has wiped smile off their faces.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, potato has been cultivated on 42,261 hectares of land in Dinajpur this season with a production target of 97,387 tonnes.

Assistant Director Anwarul Alam told bdnews24.com another 9,300 hectares of land were cultivated for other vegetables.

Saber Ali, a potato grower from Ulipur village in Dinajpur Sadar Upazila, said he had sold a kilogram of his produce at Tk 20-22 last year but this year he had to charge only Tk 9 a kg.

He said the price dropped sharply as wholesalers from across the country could not arrive in the district, which caters to a large portion of the country’s demand for winter vegetables, due to violent agitation.

Ali said he was going to count losses to the tune of Tk 11,000 per bigha (33 decimals) this season.

The BNP-led 18-Party Alliance is enforcing countrywide general strikes and blockades one after another to press its key demand for the next parliamentary polls under a non-party caretaker administration.

But the government is going ahead with its plan to stage the election on Jan 5 amid an Opposition boycott.

Nabiul Haq, another farmer of the locality, said last year wholesalers were purchasing beans at around Tk 20 a kg and cabbage or cauliflower at Tk 20-22 a piece from the farm.

But this season the growers are not getting the last year’s prices even at the market. Beans are selling at Tk 5 a kg and cabbage or cauliflower at Tk 7-8, he added.

He said many growers were not finding it feasible to pluck beans from the farm.
Farmers said traders from Dhaka, Chittagong, Manikganj, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Comilla gather at Dinajpur every year to buy vegetables. But this year the situation is different as the traders cannot arrive because of the agitation including transport blockades.
The political programmes have also led to a sharp rise in the transport cost, ultimately taking tolls on the farmers.
Truck driver Noor Alam said transport operators were not willing to take risk.
He said the few who were running their vehicles were charging their clients high freight charge.
Alam said truck charge on Dinajpur-Dhaka route rose to Tk 70,000 from Tk 22,000 due to the agitation.