Jhapa farmers getting better price of paddy

By Our Correspondent,Damak, Dec. 18: Farmers in Jhapa are happy after the price of paddy has increased this year. The price of paddy has increased by 25 to 50 per cent this year compared to last year.

At this time last year, the price of paddy was Rs. 1,000 to a maximum of 1,200 per 40 kg, but now the price has reached Rs.  1,500 to Rs. 1,600 per 40 kg. 

Madan Acharya, a farmer of Kamal Rural Municipality, said that the price of paddy has been good this year. They were unable to sell paddy even at the minimum support price fixed by the government last year, he recalled. 

According to Kedar Mishra, a farmer of Damak Municipality-10, the price of paddy was increasing day by day. “Paddy is being sold at Rs. 1,600 per 40 kg in the market. 

Farmers will be encouraged to cultivate paddy if they get a reasonable price,” he said.

According to him, if the price of rice is high like this year, the farmers will be encouraged to cultivate more paddy. Farmers are easily receiving prices higher than the prices fixed by the Food Management and Trading Company, Birtamod branch. Since last Monday, the company has been buying Sona Mansuli paddy and Ranjit Mansuli paddy at Rs. 3,362 per quintal. 

They said that due to provisions such as the rice must be free from insects, well dried and free of foreign matter and other rice, the farmers who sell rice must bring a copy of their citizenship and a self-declaration paper, the farmers were facing problems in selling their rice to the company.

Farmers are not attracted to growing paddy because of the mandatory requirements to bring the recommendation of farmer certification issued by the concerned ward office, municipality or rural municipality, they said. 

The government has fixed a minimum support price for paddy. 

According to this, the price of coarse rice per quintal is Rs. 3,198 and the price of medium rice is Rs. 3,362 per quintal.

In previous years, the farmers did not even get the minimum support price set by the government.

According to the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Jhapa, around 436,467 tonnes of paddy was produced in the district this year. 

The paddy production has increased by 8,600 tonnes this year compared to last year.

The production of paddy has increased even though the paddy plantation area declined in the district this year.

Farmers are also getting excited about planting paddy twice a year as the production cost will be low and the price will be high.