Farmers in Atwari, Panchagarh, have had a bumper crop of bottle gourds but are not getting a fair price for it. With output so high, the market price has hit bottom; in places four gourds sell for just one taka. Unable to recover their costs, many growers have cut down their plots in despair, and some are feeding the gourds from their fields to their cattle.
Farmers complain that while the price in the field is extremely low, the same produce costs considerably more in retail markets, so they see no profit even after the harvest. Many are now worried about whether they will get back the money they put into the crop.
Dulal Islam, a farmer from Telipara in Mirzapur union of the upazila, grew gourds on 40 decimals of land at a cost of about Tk 60,000 to 70,000. Over the whole season he has earned only Tk 3,000 from sales, he said, which does not cover his labourers’ wages and other costs.
“After all the hard work of growing gourds, when there is no price, there is no choice but to accept the loss,” Dulal Islam said. Selling two to three thousand gourds will hardly buy a kilo of beef, he said. He has cut down his plot in frustration and is feeding the gourds to his cattle.
Although the price at the producer’s level is low, he said, shoppers in the market are paying Tk 20 to 30 a piece. He questioned the gap between what the farmer gets and what the consumer pays.
Ansarul Islam, a grower from Jhaljhali Ularchap in the same union, said he has stopped tending his gourd plot for 10 days in a row. The higher prices of fertiliser and pesticide, along with labourers’ wages, have become hard for him to bear.
A labourer has to be paid Tk 600 to 700 a day, he said, while this season a gourd fetches at most Tk 5. If prices stay this low against production costs, he fears farmers will lose interest in growing gourds in future.
Local trader Soleman Ali said both the area planted and the yield had been good this year, but supply exceeding demand had brought prices down. With prices in markets outside the area also falling short of expectations, farmers are counting losses.
According to the district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension, bottle gourds are grown on about 550 to 600 hectares of land in Panchagarh district each year.
Repeated calls to the mobile phone of Atwari upazila agriculture officer Mostak Ahmed for comment went unanswered.
Despite the good harvest, Atwari’s growers are disheartened at not getting a fair price for their gourds. With market prices out of step with production costs, local farmers are calling for effective steps to reduce their losses.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report