Farmers in three upazilas of Natore around the Chalan Beel wetland are doing well from "Rang Bilash", a sugarcane grown for chewing. It covers 126 hectares in the district this year and yields at least 1,213 tonnes of juice, the state news agency BSS reports.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, Gurudaspur has the most, 60 hectares, followed by Baraigram with 52 and Singra with 14. Rang Bilash is grown only in these three Chalan Beel upazilas, whose soil, water and climate are thought to suit it.
Grower Rabiul Karim said they plant garlic or onion between the cane after transplanting, getting 25-30 maunds of garlic or up to 60 maunds of onion a bigha. The intercrop covers the cost of the cane, so everything the cane fetches is profit, at least Tk 2 lakh a bigha by his reckoning. Selim Reza, sub-assistant agriculture officer for the Bonpara block, said some farmers grow mung bean as the intercrop and that about 100 acres of the block are under Rang Bilash this season.
Golam Rasul of Mohishbhanga village in Baraigram has grown the variety for 30 years. He planted five bighas this year and has already sold the cane from two for Tk 4.5 lakh. Traders from outside the district buy in the field at Tk 3,000-7,000 per hundred canes, and single canes sell for Tk 40-80 at retail. He has raised more than a thousand seedlings for next season; the cane stays in the field all year and needs watching for fungal attack.
Md Habibul Islam Khan, deputy director of the DAE, said the chewing cane is set to become one of the area's main cash crops, and Baraigram agriculture officer Nilima Jahan said the department is advising growers.
The report is from the state news agency BSS.
Photo: Steve Evans / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: BSS
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