As there is no natural calamity in Kishoreganj's haor this year, farmers have been able to bring boro paddy home in time. However, the farmers are assuming that they will not get the real price of paddy due to brokers, peddlers and middlemen.
Although the government has officially announced the purchase of paddy directly from farmers from April 28, in reality, process of paddy proclamation has not started yet. This year, 1 lakh 66 thousand 950 hectares of land in Kishoreganj district comes under boro cultivation. At the beginning of the season, kalboisakhi storms and hot winds interfered with pollination.
As a result, 25,000 hectares of paddy land in the upazilas surrounded by haor was damaged. The senior secretary of the Department of Agricultural Extension along with senior officials of the Rice Research Institute and the Department of Agriculture visited the field and advised the farmers to protect their crops from this disaster. According to advised the farmer's sprinkled water mixed with potash and gave it to the affected land. As a result, about 10,000 hectares of land was saved from scattering of paddy.
Last week, the meteorological department had forecast heavy rains in the upper reaches. Farmers go to the field to harvest their crops in time without any misfortune. Moreover, the government distributed 130 combined harvester machines among the farmers this year as seasonal agricultural workers could not come to Haor due to lockdown. With the help of this machine, only 2 people can cut and thresh 8 acres of paddy in a day. When a farmer needed 240 workers.
As of May 5, 90 per cent paddy has been harvested in the area.65 percent paddy has been harvested in upstream areas.In the heat of Boishakh, there are doubts about the price of Boro paddy, the hard-earned crop of the farmers.At present, BR-28 variety of dry paddy is being sold at Tk 900 to Tk 950, BR-29 variety at Tk 800 to Tk 850 and diamond variety at Tk 750 to Tk800 per quintal.Moreover, wet paddy is being sold at Tk 700 to Tk 900.
This year, the target has been set to collect 23,346 metric tons of paddy in 13 upazilas of Kishoreganj district. Md. Saiful Alam, Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension, said paddy would be procured from farmers through apps in four upazilas and lottery in the remaining nine upazilas. The list of farmers will be finalized on May 10.
Paddy will be procured as per that list. But on April 28, the purchase of paddy was inaugurated in Kishoreganj. This time in 13 upazilas of the district, the target has been set to buy 23,346 metric tons of paddy at the rate of Tk 1,080 per quintal, i.e. Tk 27 per kg.
Thousands of metric tons of paddy are coming to Chamta port by boat from Haor.Transport is being done by truck from the river bank by road.Such a scene will be seen at Chamta port in Karimganj upazila of the district known as the gateway to the haor.New paddy is being bought and sold in about 50 yards at the port wharf.
Paddy Trader Khairul Islam said that this time the farmers could easily cut the paddy and return it after threshing, sifting and drying. Paddy prices may rise further. So farmers are selling less paddy this time. Taking home for storage. On the other hand, as farmers are less interested in selling paddy in government food warehouses, there are doubts as to whether the target of buying paddy will be achieved this time. Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Shamim Alam said the target of purchasing paddy would be met within the stipulated time by motivating the farmers.
Kishoreganj Agricultural Extension Department Deputy Director Md.Saiful Alam said the target for rice production this year was 7 lakh 11 thousand 580 metric tons.However, he hoped that the target would be exceeded as the yield was good.