Incentive onion seeds fail to sprout in Madaripur

Mosharraf Bepari a farmer from Balaikandi village in Peyarpur union of Madaripur Sadar upazila planted one kilogram of onion seeds from the government subsidy on 33 percent of his land. Even after receiving the free seeds, he spent another 40,000 taka to cultivate. But no seedlings grew from the seeds. Therefore, he was forced to start farming anew, bearing the burden of losses.

Not only Mosharraf, but about six hundred farmers in the district have suffered losses by sowing onion seeds from the government subsidy.

Another farmer from the same village, Bachchu Bepari, said, “I sowed government onion seeds on 20 percent of my land. But the seedlings did not grow. The entire land is now covered with grass. Since my field is in a chowki, there is no way to cultivate it again with a tractor on someone else’s land. This year my land was lying empty. I cultivated onions on loan. Now I can’t sleep thinking about how I will repay the loan. I want compensation from the government.”

Another farmer named Matiar Sardar Askrani said, “I planted government onion seeds at a cost of about 50,000 taka. All my money has gone down the drain.” “Not a single seed has sprouted.” According to the Madaripur Agricultural Extension Department, Bari-1, Bari-4 and Taherpuri onion seeds worth 7 crore taka were purchased through contracting organizations and contracted gross farmers last November. These were given free of cost to 10,820 farmers in 5 districts of Greater Faridpur. Out of these, 600 farmers in Madaripur district were given these seeds. But even after two months, grass and vines have grown in the land instead of fodder.

Farmers have alleged that such a situation has arisen due to the procurement and distribution of low-quality seeds by contractors. There are also allegations that some local contracted farmers and BADC officials were involved in supplying low-quality seeds without any lab tests. That is why the seeds did not germinate.

Santosh Chandra Chanda, Deputy Director of Madaripur Agricultural Extension Department, said, “We have provided onion seeds provided by the Bangla Agricultural Development Corporation to more than 600 farmers free of cost. But it was found that no seedlings grew in the lands of 527 farmers.” Later, as an incentive, we provided half a kg of onion seeds free of cost to 527 farmers from our Agricultural Extension Department. However, the BADC authorities can explain why the seeds did not grow in the farmers’ lands. We only brought their seeds and gave them to the farmers.

In the meantime, the head office of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation has formed a committee to investigate the incident. However, regarding the supply of low-quality seeds, BADC Assistant Director of Faridpur region Sayem Mallik replied, “We have sent the seeds supplied to us from Dhaka to different districts to give to the farmers. The Dhaka head office can tell us why they did not sprout.”

Meanwhile, Rafiqul Islam Mukta, head of seed supplier contractor Golden Enterprise, said, “When we collect seeds, BADC officials collect samples from us and send them for lab testing. After the testing, BADC officials give us certificates that the seeds are good. After that, we supply the seeds to the government.”

Madaripur Economic Association President Ripon Chandra Mallick said the government has taken up this project directly to protect the interests of farmers. But it is believed that a syndicate of officials from the concerned department has misused the money by supplying low-quality seeds. Therefore, it is important to investigate the irregularities in this project and bring the culprits to justice.

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