Telangana farmers face dearth of jute bags due to crisis in Bangladesh jute industry

HYDERABAD: A crisis in the jute mills industry in Bangladesh has affected farmers in Telangana. There is a short supply of jute bags for storing paddy and farmers are complaining about it. Agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy on Wednesday acknowledged that there was an insufficient supply of jute bags for farmers. “This is because of the jute mills crisis in Bangladesh.The production of jute bags in that country has decreased. We are trying to overcome the problem,” he said in Nagarkurnool.
The minister along with Nagarkurnool MLA Marri Janardhan Reddy visited the market yard in Nagarkurnool and noticed that because of the untimely rains, stocks of paddy had got wet. Farmers are agitated about this because they will not be able to sell wet paddy. Niranjan Reddy, however, assured them that the entire stock would be bought.
“First we will buy the dry stock. After allowing some time for the wet paddy to dry, that also will be bought. There will be no difference in the minimum support price whenever the paddy is bought,” he assured farmers. He also directed officials to hire more vehicles if necessary to shift the paddy stocks. Niranjan Reddy warned contractors against any difference in weight of the stocks and said strict action would be taken if they resorted to any malpractices.
In Bangladesh, the production of jute goods fell by at least 66 per cent this year, leading to a crisis. This was set off because of a cash crunch faced by the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation. Raw jute which had been cultivated was not bought by the corporation and therefore the production by mills fell drastically.