Farmers in Dinajpur happy to get good prices for jute
Mahidul Islam Ripon, Dinajpur
"I can't do much by selling rice, I sell rice and pay off the loan for fertilizer, poison and other expenses, so this time I sold jute and bought hilsa fish first, I eat it all at home as I want." He said, after selling 'Sonali Ansh' (Golden fibre) , I now bought 'Rupali Hilsa'.
This is how farmer Shanti Kumar Adhikari of Azimpur village in Birol upazila of Dinajpur reacted to this reporter after getting a good price for jute. Shanti Kumar Adhikari said that last Saturday, he took jute to Nashipur Farm Haat in Dinajpur Sadar upazila and sold it for 36,000 taka. He sold 5 maunds of jute for 18,000 taka. He was happy to get the unexpected price and bought a kilogram of hilsa fish for 24,000 taka to satisfy the taste of his family members. He said that due to the high price, the family had not bought hilsa fish for a long time despite their wishes. Therefore, after getting a good price for jute, he bought hilsa fish first and went home.
Farmer Shanti Kumar said, sometimes the expenses incurred in cultivating paddy are not met properly. Therefore, it is not possible to meet the needs of the family. This time, he is happy to be able to meet the needs of his family by cultivating jute. He said, this time, he spent a total of 15 thousand taka to cultivate jute on one bigha of land. He got 12 maunds of jute. The price of these 12 maunds of jute is 43 thousand 200 taka. After deducting all the expenses, he has made a profit of more than 28 thousand taka by cultivating jute on one bigha of land. He said, if he had known that such a price would be available earlier, he could have cultivated more jute.
Meanwhile, not only farmer Shanti Kumar, but other jute farmers in Dinajpur are happy to finally get a good price for jute, even though they have faced various problems while cultivating jute in the changing climate.
Last Sunday, when I went to Joynand Hat in Kaharol Upazila, I saw that jute farmers had brought their jute to the market in vans to sell at the market. Traders are buying jute at a price ranging from 3,500 taka to 3,650 taka per maund. At this market, jute farmer Anand Roy from Kakor village came to sell jute and sold it at a price of 3,600 taka per maund. This time, he got a price of about 40,000 taka by cultivating jute on one bigha of land. He said that he made a profit of about 25 to 27 thousand taka after deducting the production cost. Hemant, a farmer from the same village, said that this time the jute yield is also good and the price is good, so this time jute cultivation is profitable. If jute prices are like this, farmers will be interested in cultivating jute in the future.
However, despite getting good prices, jute farmers said that now there is no water in the reservoirs as before. The canals and beels have also decreased. And this time, there has been no timely rainfall in this region, including Dinajpur. Therefore, due to lack of water, they face a lot of problems while putting jute in the sacks (for decomposition). Many people have filled the reservoirs with shallow machines and put jute in the sacks, they said.
Md. Mostafizur Rahman, Additional Deputy Director of the Dinajpur Department of Agricultural Extension, said that jute has been cultivated on a total of 4,372 hectares of land in Dinajpur district this season. The production target has been set at nine thousand tons of jute.
Although farmers once made a lot of profit by cultivating this jute, known as the 'golden fiber', they later turned away from jute cultivation due to not getting good prices. However, due to getting good prices this time, Dinajpur farmers are becoming interested in jute cultivation again in the future.
