Golden ripe jhum rice fills the folds of Rangamati's hills, mixed with companion crops, and jhum farmers are busy bringing in the harvest in Kaptai and other upazilas of the district.
Md Moniruzzaman, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Rangamati, told BSS that jhum was grown on 5,000 hectares this year, with production targets of 12,000 tonnes of rice and 25,000 tonnes of other crops. Warning that farming the same land too often can cut yields, he urged farmers to follow the department's advice.
Jhum is the oldest livelihood of the 13 small ethnic communities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, who are called jhumia for it. The practice is called jhum in Chakma and Tanchangya, hu in Tripura, ya in Marma, ikpra in Pangkhua and Lushai, lau in Khiang and lo in Khumi.
Nona Chakma, who farms beside the Asambasti-Kaptai-Morghona road, says suitable hillside land is chosen and the jungle cut, left to dry in the sun for over a month in Chaitra and then burned; the land is weeded and rice and other seeds are sown between late Chaitra and early Baishakh.
Ananda Chakma of Baradam says holes are dug with a dao to sow companion crops alongside the rice: banana, maize, marfa cucumber, chilli, okra, kakrol, ginger, pumpkin, cotton and sesame. Jhum rice varieties include Harin Bini, Kala Kabarak, Long Long, Mele, Kamarang, Gelong, Guri and Loba Bini. The rice ripens in Ashar-Shraban and comes home from Bhadra-Ashwin, and with no pest outbreaks this year, he says, yields are good.
The report is a special report by Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).
Photo: rice fields among the hills of Rangamati, Adam Jones / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: BSS
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