In the wholesale Green-grocer market in Rajshahi at Shaheb Bazaar there was no room for traders to sit and sell vegetables. As a result, many of them have occupied the footpath in front of Rajshahi Collegiate School to sell their products.
“The school is now closed for Corona pandemic, otherwise, only God knows where to sit and sell our vegetable,” said Akram, a floating trader selling vegetable at the footpath there.
“There were so abundant supply of vegetables and the number of vegetable traders has increased in the city so many that we did not get any space to sell our products by sitting inside the green-grocer market. That is why we are forced to sit beside the footpath adjacent to the market,” said another vegetable trader who was hawking- 'Onion stick for Taka five per kg'. Another trader sitting beside him was hawking-' Radish at Taka three per kg', Cabbage Taka five per piece.’
With the huge supply of the winter vegetables of various types, the prices of those have also fallen abnormally in the markets of Rajshahi. Not only the cabbage and radish, the vegetables like Cauliflower, Carrot, Turnip, spinach, Brinjal and Bean are also being sold at throw-away prices in the city markets. The low prices of vegetables have made the consumers extremely happy but the farmers who produce those vegetables are incurring a heavy loss. They are extremely disappointed and worried over such a drastic fall of all vegetables except potato.
Though some of the farmers were able to get a satisfactory price of winter vegetables during the early December, now most of the farmers are incurring a huge loss by selling their products to the wholesale traders or to the local markets.
Hamidur Rahman of Alipur village under Paba upazila informed, he cultivated Cauliflower on three-bighas of land. It costs him about Taka 50,000 to produce the vegetables including the cost of cultivation, preparing of land, purchase of seeds, caring the plants, using of fertilisers and pesticides and harvesting. But, after reaping the vegetables, he could sell those only at Taka 20,000 which is not even a half of the amount he invested.
Another vegetable farmer Abdullah of Naohata under Paba upazila informed he cultivated cauliflower on one and a half bigha of land.
The market price being very low, he has not yet reap the vegetable from the field. He said, it costs him Taka 25,000 to 30,000 to produce the vegetable but he was worried that the present market price of the cauliflower was very low and he is not expecting to get more than Taka 10,000 to 12,000 by selling those at the present market rate. '
'I am in a fix. If I keep the cauliflower in the field for a long time, those will get flowered and matured turning unfit for cosnumption', he added. He also cultivated green-beet on half a bigha of land at a cost of 15,000 but there is no demand of greenbeet in the market and he sold the beet only at Taka 8,000.
Condition of the vegetable farmers of other villages of the district is the same. They said those who cultivated Potato, Tomato, Capsicum, Green Chilli and Onion, this year were able to earn some profit but those who cultivated cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, radish and bean were all the losers. The farmers informed, to the wholesale traders, farmers were selling Cauliflower at Taka 4,000 per bigha of products, the green-beet at Taka 6,000 per bigha, the bean and brinjal at Taka 7.00 to 8.00 per kilogramme.
The Sweet-gourd, lau, spinach, green leaf and radish are being sold at a throwaway price in the markets.
The weather of the district being favourable, there was a bumper production of all sort of winter vegetables in the district this year that is why the farmers were not getting a fair price of their products, They demanded to set up a specialised vegetable preservation storage in the district so that they can store their farm products at a low-fare and sell those when the supply is insufficient in the markets.
Shamsul Haque, Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension Officer in Rajshahi mentioned, there was a bumper production of vegetables in the district this year. He added, prices of some winter vegetables have been dropped but some others are still high. He added, a specilised cold storage for preservation of vegetables was necessary in the district and the government is considering to set-up such a specialized cold-storage in Rajshahi soon.
It is learnt, a specialised cold storage for preservation of vegetables and mango has been established in the private sector in Rajshahi recently but that is not yet drawing attention of the vegetable farmers to store their products there.