Mirzaganj (Patuakhali) Correspondent
Farmers in Mirzaganj upazila of Patuakhali, are delighted to harvest bumper yield of Aus paddy this season. Aus paddy harvesting and threshing festival is going on in every village of the upazila.
Despite the Corona disaster this year, Aus production has surpassed the target. However, farmers complained that they are not getting fair price of paddy in the market despite the bumper yield of Aus.
Visiting various areas of the upazila it was seen that farmers of the remote areas are busy in harvesting and threshing Aus paddy in the current season. They are working hand in hand as a good crop has been produced.
Some are cutting paddy, some are busy threshing paddy. They don't even have time to eat. All the members of the family are engaged in cutting, threshing and transporting paddy home. Farmers are smiling because of the good yield of Aus in this critical period of Corona pandemic.
According to the Upazila Agriculture Office, 7,505 hectares of land has been cultivated with Aus paddy in 6 unions of the upazila this season. Of these, local varieties of Aus have been planted on only 5 hectares of land and the remaining lands have been cultivated with hybrid Aus. The production target has been set at 20,260 metric tons.
BRRI Dhan-27, 42, 43, 48, 55, BAU-63, (Abdul Hai), BR-26 and local Kalaboro varieties of paddy have been cultivated in the upazila this time. This time 35 exhibitions have been given with government funding for seed production at the farmer level. Seeing the good yield of Aus last time, this time the farmers have shown interest in Aus cultivation.
As a result, Aus paddy has been cultivated in 270 hectares more land this time than last time.
Farmers including A Rab, Nurul Islam, Saheb Ali, Mannan Mallik of Paschim Subidkhali village said, the yield has been better this year as compared to last few years. However, the market price of paddy is quite low. This time per mound of Aus paddy is being sold at Tk 600-700. Last year the same was being sold at Tk 800-850. Compared to last year, the cost of cultivation, fertilizers and pesticides have increased but, the price of paddy has come down.
So, all in all, the money spent on farming is being wasted. If the price of paddy was good in the market, there would be profit. If the upazila administration paid attention to the paddy market, we would see the face of profit. They complained that the paddy traders in Subidkhali market were forcing the farmers to sell paddy at a lower price as they had formed a syndicate locally.
They also said that there is a necessary labor crisis due to coronavirus. In addition, the number of workers is higher than the amount of wages. However, they are hopeful that farmers will benefit from this year's aus cultivation if the market price of paddy goes up.
In this regard, Upazila Agriculture Officer, Agriculturist Md Arafat Hossain said, “After the current government has announced the price of paddy at Tk 1,040, the cultivation of Aus has increased at a significant rate than last time. Bumper crop has been harvested in Mirzaganj this season. However, the yield would have been higher if improved varieties of paddy had been cultivated without using local varieties in the traditional way.”
By cultivating high yielding short life span varieties of Aus like BRRI Dhan-48,82,97 etc the farmers will get 1.5 to 2 tons more yield per hectare and at the same time there will be sufficient time for cultivation of Aman Paddy. Some unscrupulous hoarders are trying to buy paddy at low prices through syndicates.
However, the agriculture department and the upazila administration are aware of this and will not be stingy in taking any legal action
