Farmer Abdul Malek Shikder enacted this unique act of protest at Bankina village in Kalahati upazila.
Talking to UNB, Malek said per maund paddy is being sold at Tk 500 while the cost of per maund paddy production is over Tk 1,000. The district farmers have been facing serious scarcity of day labourers and their price per day is Tk 800 to 850.
A day labourer can clear one to one and half maund of paddy in a day. Following this serious issue without solution, he made this unique protest of setting fire on ripe paddy field in order to draw the attention of the government, he added.
Paikara Union Parishad Chairman Azad Hossain confirmed the matter and said the incident was ‘pathetic’. Farmers should get reasonable paddy price otherwise the country’s economy will be hampered.
According to the District Agriculture Extension Department, the farmers here cultivated 171,702 hectares of land and achieved a bumper production this year.
Meanwhile, farmers have harvested paddy from around 30 percent of land. They have been facing serious day labourers’ shortage in different upazilas of the district, source said.