Sesame growers on the jhum (shifting cultivation) hillsides of Ruma in Bandarban are smiling. To prepare for harvest they are cutting the sesame stalks and tying them into bundles, which will be sun-dried and threshed within a week.
Last year, farmers say, the plants grew well but heavy rain at harvest spoiled the crop; what they brought in was of poor quality and sold for only Tk 4,000 a maund. Melan Marma of Botoli Para in Ruma Sadar union said there has been no heavy rain yet this year, so growers hope to bring in a good crop and sell it at a good price.
According to the upazila agriculture office, about 600 jhum families are growing sesame this year alongside jhum rice, marfa (a hill cucumber), maize, ash gourd, sweet pumpkin and other vegetables as companion crops. With the weather favourable, the chance of a bumper kharif sesame crop is high.
Upazila agriculture officer A K M Faridul Haque said that if no heavy rain falls in the next 15 days, the bumper crop will be a stroke of luck for growers, and if the dried sesame is brought in on time, farmers will profit from selling it.
Traders at Ruma bazar, among them Mohammad Khalilur Rahman, said they plan to buy white sesame at Tk 4,000 to 5,000 a maund and black sesame at Tk 3,000 to 4,000. One trader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he has started buying white sesame at Tk 6,000 to 6,500 depending on quality and will take black sesame at Tk 5,000 if all goes well.
Prices could fall if the weather turns, though, because rain spoils sesame quality, and buying high would then mean a loss, traders said. The report is from Dainik Bangla.
Photo: Biswarup Ganguly / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Source: Dainik Bangla
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