S.A Shofiee, Sylhet :
The transport problem amid the ongoing countrywide blockade imposed by BNP-led 20-party alliance wreaks havoc on the business of winter vegetables and poultry products in the Sylhet districts.
Growers of winter vegetables in Moulovibazar, Hobigonj and Sunamgonj are either selling the produces at throwaway prices or leaving those at fields.
Huge quantities of popular vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, bean, tomato, and gourd are getting damaged due to the situation.
Visiting different areas of Sylhet sadar upazila, this correspondent found that many farmers left their harvested vegetables on the field due to the blockade programme. In many cases, farmers refrained from plucking matured crops. The poultry farmers are also facing problems.
The prices of a kg of broiler dropped from Tk 170 to Tk 110, and that of each egg from Tk 7 to Tk 5, he added.
The early variety potato growers are in trouble too.
Fokhor Uddin Ali Ahmed president of Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said farmers, rice millers and poultry farmers are badly affected due to the blockade.
Taking the advantage of blockade, middlemen are offering very low prices for vegetables to the farmers, said Amir Ali, a farmer of Lalabazar village of Dakshin Surma upazila.
“I and some other vegetable traders destroyed huge cauliflowers on Wednesday noon as the item, lying unsold due to lack of transport, rotted,” said Abdul Alim, a trader at Subhanighat, the biggest vegetable market in the district.
