On a few decimals of land beside his home in Narayanpur village, Ballamjhar union, Gaibandha Sadar, that had lain unused and littered for years, farmer Mostafa Kamal Opil has built a nursery of native date palm seedlings. What began with a handful of seeds on his son's advice now holds about 700 seedlings.
Mostafa Kamal said the deaths and fear caused by lightning in recent years moved him. Out of that concern he decided to raise seedlings of palmyra and native date palms, known as tall, long-lived trees, meaning to plant them around his home and spread them along village roads.
Raising each seedling to three and a half to four feet has cost about Tk 50,000 in all for seed and care. Seedlings now sell for about Tk 500 each in the local market, so he sees the chance of some Tk 350,000 in sales from this small nursery. He says the net profit is several times what rice or wheat would bring.
When the plants show disease, he takes advice from local sub-assistant agriculture officers and sprays as they direct. Seeing a good return for a low cost, many farmers from around the area come every day to look at the seedlings.
Neighbours and agriculturists say that just as palmyra and date palm sap and jaggery have strengthened the rural economy in Naogaon and elsewhere in the west, planned planting in Gaibandha could meet regional demand. If nurseries like this could take part in government programmes to plant palmyra and date palms along rural roads, they say, they would protect the environment and give farming families long-term financial security.
The report is by Dinajpur TV's Gaibandha correspondent.
Photo: Balaram Mahalder / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0); date palm, representative picture
Source: Dinajpur TV
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