Low quality paddy in market headache for Parasi farmers

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Parasi (Nawalparasi), Oct. 20: Farmers of Parasi are facing double trouble. The first problem is that they still have stock of last year’s paddy and they fear they will not be able to sell this year’s production. The second is the price of it. Their main concern is the price of paddy is going down day by day mainly because of the low quality paddy from India.

The district has three geographical divisions - Terai, inner Terai and hilly regions and paddy is the main crop in the district. People living in Terai and inner Terai parts of the district are involved in paddy farming. But when they do not get proper prices for the products, it has been very difficult for them to meet their expenses.

"The prices of other goods are going up everyday. But we have not be able to get good prices for paddy, which is our major product and also the major source of livelihood," farmers say.

At present, the Mansuli and other varieties of paddy are sold at Rs. 800 and Rs. 600 per quintal respectively in the market.

Employees at the district agricultural development office say that the import of paddy from India has affected the sale of Nepalese paddy.

Padam Bahadur GC, a farmer of Rajhar VDC of the district, had sold paddy worth Rs. 500,000 last year. But he has not sold paddy this year. "I have stored all the paddy because of poor price," GC says.

Traders are also not buying paddy from the farmers. Prem Kafle, a local trader, says that he has not bought any paddy from farmers this year because he thinks buying paddy ‘at present’ will not be profitable because of the downward trend of the price.

Pushpa Raj Poudel, district committee chairman of Nepal Farmers’ Association, meanwhile, says that the farmers will not sell the paddy unless they get a good price.

In the district, more than 100,000 metric tons of paddy is produced every year. According to the district agricultural development office, the production of paddy has increased by two times this year because of favourable weather.

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