Jute factories dependent on imported raw materials

ITAHARI, AUG 05 -

Jute industries in Sunsari and Morang are dependent on imported raw materials amid insufficient domestic production.

Farmers in Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha and Udayapur are leaving jute cultivation, citing lack of government support and irrigation facility, and low price.

Increased departure of youths for foreign employment is also contributing to declining jute cultivation.

Mantu Yadav, a farmer at Laukahi VDC, Sunsari, said it is very difficult to find people engaged in jute cultivation. “The government does not provide necessary support,” he said.

Nine jute industries in the Eastern Region require more than 70,000 tonnes of jute a year, according to the Jute Industry Association President Raj Kumar Golchha. However, domestic production stands at just 17,400 tonnes.

“We import the raw materials from Bangladesh and India,” he said.

Juite is cultivated on 68,000 hectares of land in the Eastern Tarai. Until a decade ago, the juite cultivation area was 97,500 tonnes, according to the association.

“The farmers are not being able to sell the raw material to industries directly, and the government is not providing irrigation facility to them,” said Yubaraj Thapa, a scientist at Jute Research Programme, Itahari .

Bajuddhin Miya, a local of Shreepur VDC, Sunsari, complained the farmers were not getting good price of the industrial raw material and that they were discouraged to involve in jute farming.

“On the other hand, increased migration of people for foreign employment also created such a situation,” he said.

Industrialists admit the farmers should get fair price. Golchha said forming a farmers’ cooperative to sell jute instead of depending on middlemen might help them.

Source: The Kathmandu Post