Farmers demand ‘national commission’ to ensure fair price

A total of 12 organisations of farmers have demanded a ‘national price commission’ to ensure fair price of agricultural products.

At a press conference at the National Press Club, the farmers on Thursday also recommended special allocations in the upcoming budget to build permanent embankment to save coastal agricultural land, read a press statement.

Addressing the press conference, Md Mujibul Haque Munir, secretariat coordinator of Bangladesh Farmers Forum said, “As many as 46 per cent of our labour resource are engaged with the agriculture sector and our food security depends on this sector. So, at least 20 per cent of total national budget should be allocated for agriculture sector.”

“Though the size of the national budget is increasing every year, budget for agriculture sector is not increasing proportionately,” he was quoted in the statement.

Speaking at the press conference, Abdul Majid said, the farmers must have had seed sovereignty.

<DBL-QTS>We have to reduce our dependency on multinational seed companies,<DBL-QTS> he added.

Shahabuddin said, “Farmers of Bhola had to spend about Tk 600 to produce each 100 Kgs of rice, but the price was just Tk 400 to Tk 450. Ensuring fair price of the farmers’ product, we need to reform the current rice collection system of the government.”

Another speaker Saiduzzaman said, in many cases agriculture subsidy is going to wrong hands.

Moderating the event, Mustafa Kamal Akanda said, <DBL-QTS>Each year we are losing one per cent of our agricultural land, about one million people are becoming homeless due to river erosion. We demand social allocation to build permanent embankment to save the coastal agricultural land.”   

The press conference titled ‘We demand fair price commission for agriculture production: Permanent embankment is a must to save coastal agricultural land<SNG-QTS> was jointly organised by Coastal Farmers’ Association, Bangladesh Fish Workers Alliance, Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation, National Women Farmers Association, Bangladesh Adibashi Samity, Haor Farmers and Fishers Alliance,  Gram Labour Resource Centre, Nolchira Pani Unnayan Somity, Dighon CIG, Kendriyo Krishak Moitree, Bangladesh Farmers’ Forum and COAST Trust.