The official deadline for paddy and rice procurement in Gaibandha is August 31. However, the district food department has suddenly stopped purchasing paddy about three weeks before the scheduled date. As a result, local farmers are in trouble as they are unable to sell their paddy in government warehouses. As a result, they are forced to sell their paddy at low prices to vendors and wholesalers in the local market, unable to get a fair price.
The government paddy procurement process in Gaibandha district has been stopped three weeks ahead of schedule. Although the Boro paddy-rice procurement campaign that started on May 25 was supposed to continue till August 31, the district food department has completely stopped paddy procurement since August 9. This has put the marginal farmers of the district in a dilemma. Although they have surplus paddy in their warehouses, they are unable to sell it in the government warehouses. They are forced to sell paddy to local wholesalers at a price much lower than the government-set price.
Most people in this agricultural district depend on paddy cultivation. In the current Boro season, about 892,000 metric tons of paddy have been produced in 129,020 hectares of land in the district. According to the Agriculture Department, local farmers still have a surplus of about 98,000 metric tons of paddy. The district’s 11 food warehouses currently have 39,000 metric tons of stock against a capacity of 43,000 metric tons.
Despite the empty storage capacity in the warehouse, the procurement campaign was stopped before the scheduled time, so the middlemen benefited, but the ordinary farmers faced extreme losses. The entire burden of losses has fallen on the ordinary farmers as the procurement of paddy was stopped before the scheduled time. The farmers are demanding the start of the procurement campaign quickly.
Faruk Mia, a farmer from Darbasto Union in Gobindaganj Upazila, said, “I rented a van and brought my paddy to the warehouse and heard that the purchase of paddy has been stopped, even though the government is still open. Since it is the time of the government announcement, many of us farmers were waiting for the paddy to be delivered, but we are unable to sell the paddy because it was suddenly closed.”
Meanwhile, admitting that farmers are coming to sell paddy every day due to the fixed time for buying paddy, Gaibandha District Food Controller Nityanand Kundu said that despite the fixed time, paddy purchase has been stopped on the instructions of higher authorities. The purchase process will be started again if the instructions are received again.
The Boro paddy and rice collection drive in the district, which began on May 25, was scheduled to continue until August 31, but rice procurement was stopped on August 9. During this time, 14,396 metric tons of paddy have been collected.
