The farmers of coastal areas including Barishal district are in trouble due to the sudden increase in the price of fuel oil and fertilizers in the markets. For this reason, they are currently facing losses in Aman cultivation due to increase in production cost. In such a situation, the government has demanded direct incentives at the farmer level.
After investigation, it was found that Aman paddy is cultivated in almost 100% of the land of Barishal. According to the information of the agriculture department, the target of Aman cultivation has been set on 1 lakh 90 thousand hectares of land in the district.
Accordingly now the season of Aman cultivation is going on. However, due to rising prices of fertilizers and diesel, there is not much interest among the farmers in paddy cultivation. Even half of the arable land has not been cultivated till now.
Farmer Alamgir Gazi of Wazirpur upazila area of Barishal. Besides cultivating his own land, he used to contract the land of local farmers with his tractor. But this time he is in danger because of the sudden increase in the price of oil.
Alamgir Gazi said that the condition of their cultivation is very bad, the price of oil increased by 34 taka per liter. At the beginning of the season, he made an agreement with many farmers that he will cultivate each acre of land for 4 thousand taka. But now the price of oil has increased, it is not possible to farm with this money. Now there is no option but to leave the land and run away.
Meanwhile, the farmers of the region are worried due to the increase in the price of diesel as well as the increase in the price of fertilizers. Kalam Howladar, a farmer in Gournadi area of Barishal said, 'Fertilizer prices are high, oil prices are high. What to do now? I am still cultivating hoping that government will look after the farmers.’
Aman paddy is cultivated on 100% of the land in Barishal district according to the government. Due to sufficient rainfall in the previous years, there was no need to irrigate the land in Aman Abad, but this time due to low rainfall, many lands have not yet been cultivated.
In such a situation, it will be necessary to irrigate a lot of land to cultivate Aman. By doing this, the production cost of farmers will increase further, they said.