Dhaka: Senior BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain on Friday claimed that wrong government policies are denying farmers fair prices of their products.

‘Why is the government not procuring paddy directly from farmers with fair prices?’ the BNP standing committee member asked at a reception programme arranged by BNP at its chairperson’s Gulshan office on the occasion of Buddha Purnima.

Mosharraf noted that the recent incident of a farmer setting fire to his crop because he is frustrated with falling prices is not a small matter, reports the UNB.

Farmers are counting about Tk 300 loss per maund of rice in the current Boro season with the fall in prices.

‘It’s an ominous sign for our country. But the government is sidetracking the issue,’ he said. ‘Had the farmers gotten fair prices, they wouldn’t have had to set fire to their paddy fields.’

Mosharraf also accused the government of providing pro-ruling party businessmen opportunities to siphon off money abroad through rice import although the country has a huge stock of paddy.