Farmer Ali Akbar cultivated Boro paddy on 20 bighas of land in the haor this season. He has harvested paddy from three bighas so far. With no cash in hand on one side and a shortage of labourers on the other, he has taken his 13-year-old son, Redwan, to the fields to harvest the crop.
This correspondent met Ali Akbar on Friday afternoon working under the scorching summer sun at Baon Haor in Sunamganj Sadar upazila. Alongside two other farmers, he was stacking harvested paddy in the threshing yard.
When asked how he was doing, he said, “We are under pressure from all sides. We farm just to survive. There is no profit. The price of paddy and the cost are almost the same. Everything is expensive now. It’s hard just to run the household.”
A sharecropper from Hasonbahar village by the haor, Ali Akbar explained that cultivating one bigha of land now costs around Tk 5,000, including labour, fertiliser, seeds and pesticides. Harvesting requires four labourers per bigha, each earning Tk 700–800 a day this season.
There are also costs for machine threshing. Each bigha yields 12 to 14 maunds of paddy. After expenses, whatever remains is barely enough to get by.
He added that the high price of diesel has increased the cost of harvesting and threshing this year. A shortage of harvest labourers is another major concern.
Ali Akbar has a family of six—his wife and four sons. Due to financial hardship, he could not continue his eldest son Redwan’s education beyond seventh grade. The paddy he gets from sharecropping does not last the whole year. Rising prices have made the situation even more difficult.
Referring to rising market prices, he said, “Soybean oil costs Tk 200, potatoes Tk 30. No vegetables are below Tk 70–80. They say oil cannot be imported because of the war. Transport costs have gone up, so everything is expensive. But we don’t get a fair price for our paddy.”
In the month of Chaitra, many households in the haor areas run out of rice. Although the old notion of ‘Chaitrer Nidan’ (hardship in the month of Chaitra) has lessened, shortages still persist during this time. Farmers often take loans to cultivate their land, which they must repay when harvesting begins in the month of Boishakh.
Ali Akbar said many are forced to sell paddy at low prices to repay debts while managing household expenses. Paddy is currently selling at Tk 800 per mound in the fields. Prices may rise towards the end of Boishakh, but farmers are compelled to sell early at lower rates.
As the conversation continued, local youth Shahin Mia, 35, arrived at the threshing yard with a machine. Ali Akbar and his son became busy with work. When asked about the diesel needed for operating the machine, Shahin said it requires two litres per hour.
On Thursday morning, Shahin had to wait about an hour at a fuel station in town and show his agricultural card to get 15 litres of diesel. He also had to tip a staff member Tk 50. He said it is difficult to run the machine continuously due to diesel shortages, and fuel is not easily available. As a result, operating the machine is not very profitable this season.
During the conversation, two other farmers Abdul Musabbir, 60, and Nur Ahmed, 38, were standing nearby. Musabbir said, “There is a war going on in some other countries, but we are the ones suffering. There is no electricity, no diesel. What can we do? Everything we buy is expensive. The days ahead seem likely to be even worse.”