Farmers also suffer from bumper crop of chillies
Photo Collected
Failure to pick pepper can damage plants and reduce subsequent yields. So they are forced to raise pepper at a loss.
Now I am selling pepper at the market at Tk 15-16 per kg. But the laborer needs to pay 10 to 12 taka for picking one kg of pepper from the land. Along with this, the cost of bringing it to the market and returning home is another 3-4 taka per kg. Then the cost of picking up and bringing the pepper pods is rising somehow. Fertilizer, seeds, medicines and the cost of land (rent) is a total loss.
বিজ্ঞাপন
The words were spoken by Ayub Ali Sardar, a farmer of Baya village of Santhia upazila in Pabna. He is afraid of loss as the price of green chillies fell despite the good yield. Like him, the situation of thousands of pepper farmers in the upazila is the same now.
Santhia upazila, known as the vegetable storehouse of the country, has produced a large yield of green chillies this time. But with the increase in production, the supply in the market also increased. As a result, the farmers have no smile on their faces due to the fall in the bumper yield.
বিজ্ঞাপন
Last Thursday, the pepper fields of different areas including Baya, Shamukjani, Chechchania, Ghughudah of the upazila were visited, almost every field has grown a lot of pepper. Farmers are busy collecting chillies from the trees. But there is no relief in their eyes.
Farmers said that if the pepper is not picked, the plant is damaged and the subsequent yield may decrease. So they are forced to raise pepper at a loss. In many cases women members of the household and students are also involved in picking pepper along with the laborers.
Arif Hossain, a farmer of Chhechania village, said, ‘Chilli are growing on the trees. If you don’t lift the tree, it will be destroyed. But at the price that I am selling, the profit is far from it, and the cost is not rising.
Farmers and traders said that the farmers have to live in uncertainty about the pepper market for several years. If the yield is low in any year, the price increases, and if the production is high, the price falls. At this time last year, the price of green chillies rose from Tk 110 to Tk 120 per kg. However, due to the rains, the yield was reduced due to disease in the trees. As a result, even though the prices were high, the farmers did not get the desired profit.
According to Santhia Upazila Agriculture Office sources, 2,270 hectares of green chillies have been planted in the upazila this season. This year the target of total production is 23 thousand 835 tons. The production target is 10.5 metric tons per hectare.
In Santhia, the harvest of green chillies usually starts from May. Peppers are available from the field from May to the first week of September. As such, the full season of green chillies is currently going on in the upazila. Production will continue for the next two months.
A visit to Santhia’s Karamja Chaturhat shows a large quantity of green chillies growing in the market. Pepper farmers and traders said that even a couple of weeks ago, pepper was sold at the price of Tk 30 to Tk 40 per kg. Currently, prices have fallen due to high supply.
Santhia Upazila Agriculture Officer Mahmudul Hasan said that this time the yield of pepper has been very good due to favorable weather conditions. At the beginning of the season, farmers got a good price by selling chillies at Tk 50 to Tk 60 per kg. Now that the supply is high, the price has come down. However, there is a possibility that the price will increase again in the future.
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