The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Rangpur

Farmers are worried at, what they said, an unusual low price of their newly harvested maize, which witnessed an all-time bumper production in the northern Bangladesh this year.

Harvesting of the crop has already been completed in the region, farmers and officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) told BSS.

Deputy Director of the DAE, Rangpur Kamal Shariful Alam said that the present price of maize is very discouraging and much lower than that of the last year.

He pointed out that huge losses in the poultry sector following attacks of bird-flu substantially reduced the demand of maize in the poultry feed industries, as rearing of poultry birds in the region and the country as a whole suffered a serious setback.

Because of lower demand, price of maize has come down to Take 350 per mound (every 40 kgs) on an average in recent weeks making the farmers worried, he said.

Farmer and market sources said that price of maize was Taka 400 per mound on an average a month ago and the same was at Taka 550 per mound one and a half month ago in the region.

Unhappy farmers told BSS that favourable climate and various steps taken by the government under the post-flood agri-rehabilitation programme encouraged them for increased maize production to achieve high yield this year.

The DAE had fixed a target of producing 7,00,602 tones maize from 1,35,155 hectares of land this season that was an all-time record target for the region in maize farming.

The farmers, however, cultivated the crop in 2,02,600 hectares land that is fifty percent higher than that of the fixed target and the overall maize production stood at around twelve lakh tons this season in the region, officials said.

Several farmers at bigger markets of Badarganj, Pirgachha, Kaliganj, Aditmari, Kanthalbari, Durgapur, Maddhyapara, Fulbari and Habrahat in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur told BSS that they were not incurring losses but profit was not noticeable this time from maize farming.

"We had expected the sale price of a maund of maize at Taka 650 to 800 this season but we are disappointed to see that the buyers have reduced it in between Taka 320 and 370 per maund," they said.

According to the farmers, some middlemen and unfair businessmen together also might have formed syndicates to purchase the crop at a low price and stock it to sell at higher prices at an opportune moment to maximize profit.