Blockade a real bane to farmers:Daily Star

Vegetable growers at Khalispur Bazar in Moheshpur of Jhenidah sit idle with their produce with hardly any customers or wholesalers around. The nationwide blockade has disrupted shipment of vegetables to markets. Photo: Azibor Rahman With road links largely cut off amid the indefinite blockade, vegetable growers in the district have been facing losses as they are selling their produce at local mark
ets at throwaway prices. Failing to recoup the production costs, some are even feeding their cattle with vegetables. Farmers said they usually send at least 50 percent of their produce to Karwanbazar and Shyambazar in Dhaka, Chittagong, Barisal and Comilla. But the wholesalers are not buying enough vegetables as the supply chain has been hit hard by the blockade. Farmer Altaf Hossain of Kotchandpur bazar in Moheshpur upazila said he produced beans and green chilli on his three-bigha of land in this season. He has already harvested about half the crops and sold beans at Tk 20 to Tk 25 per kg a few days ago, which now sells only at Tk 2 a kg. He earned Tk 80 for a kg of green chilli, but now the price has come down to Tk 20 per kg. Altaf feared he would not be able to pay the traders the prices of pesticides and fertilisers he had bought on credit from a local market.    Most farmers in Jhenidah are facing the same problem as vegetable grower Sukur Ali of Baroghigati village under Kaliganj upazila is in. He could not recoup 20 percent of his production costs by selling his produce. Vegetable trader Bablur Rahman of Kaliganj said the nonstop blockade has ruined their business as they could not send vegetables to other districts. Advertisement