Despite bumper yields, growers unhappy over mustard price
Ishwardi (Pabna) Correspondent :
Mustard cultivation in Ishwardi has increased 3 times in three years.
Mustard yield has also been bumper this year.
But the mustard farmers are disappointed because of not getting the desired price.
Farmers fear that they will not make a profit this time due to the low market price, even though they have made a huge profit by selling mustard in the last 2 years.
However, agriculture officials say that even if the prices are low, the farmers will not have to count the losses, maybe the profit will be less than the previous years. Meanwhile, the price of mustard oil has decreased in the market. Two hundred taka kg oil is being sold at 150-160 taka. While the general consumer is happy as the price of oil has fallen, it has created discontent among the farmers.
Farmers have been getting good prices for mustard seeds for the past two years due to high prices of all types of oil in the market earlier. Due to which there is a huge interest in mustard cultivation. As a result, farmers have cultivated high-yielding varieties of mustard on a record amount of land in the current season.
According to the information of the Agriculture Office, mustard has been cultivated on 1 thousand 705 hectares of land in Ishwardi this year.
In the 2021-22 season, mustard was cultivated in 680 hectares, but in the 2022-23 season, the cultivation increased to 1,195 hectares. In the last two seasons, cultivation has increased in 1 thousand 25 hectares of land.
As the weather has been favorable this year, the yield of mustard has also been very good. However, the cost of cultivation has increased due to the fall in the price of mustard, increase in the wages of workers, high prices of fertilizers and pesticides. Due to which, far from being profitable, the farmers are in fear of loss.
It has been seen in Muladuli, Dashuria, Salimpur, Sahapur, Pakshi, Sara union and municipal areas of Sarezmin upazila, most of the mustard farmers have cut the mustard from the field and threshed it and now started drying it. They said, due to the favorable weather, there has been a bumper crop of mustard this time. Some are taking it to the local market for sale.
