Unable to bear their losses, many farmers have stopped tending their bottle gourd plots. Some are cutting down their vines, and others are feeding the gourds from their fields to their cattle. That is the plight of gourd growers seen on a visit to different parts of Atwari upazila.
Farmers say they have to sell about 200 gourds to buy one kilo of coarse rice, and about 3,000 gourds to buy a kilo of beef at Tk 750 a kilo. Having worked hard to grow the crop without getting a fair price, they are in despair.
Dulal Islam, a farmer from Telipara in Mirzapur union of the upazila, said growing gourds on 40 decimals of land cost him about Tk 60,000 to 70,000. So far, he has earned only Tk 3,000 from selling the crop. That small income does not even cover his labourers’ wages.
Another farmer of the same name said it was hard to put into words how much he had lost on his gourds. “Even selling two to three thousand gourds will not buy a kilo of beef,” he said. Without a fair price, he was forced to cut down his plot, and he is feeding some of the gourds to his cattle. Yet the same gourds sell for Tk 20 to 30 a piece in the market.
Ansarul Islam, a farmer from Jhaljhali Ularchap in the upazila, said he had stopped tending his plot for the past 10 days because gourds fetched no price. Fertiliser and pesticide prices are rising, and labourers have to be paid Tk 600 to 700 a day, he said, yet gourds from the field sell for Tk 5 a piece at most.
“If farmers have to sell their crops for far less than it costs to grow them, it is hard for them to survive,” he said. “If people work hard to grow crops and don’t get a fair price, one day they will be forced to give up farming.”
Local trader Soleman Ali said both the area planted with gourds and the yield in Atwari were good this year. But production has outstripped demand, so prices have fallen. With prices in outside markets also below expectations, farmers are counting losses.
Farmers say weak market management and the lack of effective steps to ensure fair prices have stopped a good harvest from being a blessing for them. Unless crop prices are set in line with production costs and arrangements are made to buy from farmers at fair prices, many may lose interest in farming, they say.
Atwari upazila agriculture officer Mostak Ahmed did not answer his phone despite several attempts to reach him for comment.
According to the district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension, bottle gourd is grown on about 550 to 600 hectares in Panchagarh district each year.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report