Banana cultivation in Dinajpur is growing every year, and yields are bumper. Farmers are pleased with both the harvest and the good prices, and harassment when selling has also fallen. Traders buy bananas from the fields as well as at markets and send them by truck to the capital and other parts of the country. Green bananas worth a crore taka go out every day: Tk 70-80 lakh worth are sold at the market, and traders buy about Tk 30 lakh worth from the orchards.

Bananas are grown to some extent in all 13 upazilas of Dinajpur, with 65-70 per cent grown in Sadar, Birganj, Chirirbandar, Kaharole and Biral upazilas. Bananas are harvested for three months, from the last week of Srabon to the end of Ashwin. During this time the north's second-largest banana market is held at Dashmile crossing in Kaharole upazila. Farmers from Nilphamari, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts bring bananas there, and wholesalers come from Dhaka and other districts to buy.

From night until dawn, farmers and local traders bring bananas to the market by van, nosimon, easy-bike and pickup. After trading, the fruit is loaded onto trucks from all over the country, and sales end by 8am the next morning. The trucks head for Badamtoli, Jatrabari, Tejgaon and Wiseghat in Dhaka, and for Narayanganj, Cumilla, Mymensingh and other district towns. Meher Sagar, Malbhog, Chini Champa and other varieties are found at Dashmile. The district's Meher Sagar is famous across the country, and Sabri, Sundari (Malbhog) and Chini Champa are also grown here.

According to the district agricultural extension office, bananas were grown on 1,350 hectares in the district in the Kharif-1 and Rabi seasons this year, compared with 1,100 hectares last year, an increase of 250 hectares.

Banana farmers said: "Compared with other crops, bananas cost less and earn more, so we plant bananas every time."

The leaseholder of Dashmile market said bananas worth Tk 70-80 lakh are traded there almost every day in the season. On average 16-20 trucks are loaded daily; a large truck holds at least 700 bunches and a small one 450. At least 100 workers load and unload at the market in the season. Some traders also buy directly from the fields and take the bananas away by truck, so that bananas worth a crore taka are traded in Dinajpur every day.

Abul Hossain, a banana farmer from Nayabad village in Kaharole upazila, said he had grown bananas on 48 decimals this year. He brought 100 bunches to Dashmile market and sold them for Tk 62,000.

Sadek Ali, a farmer from the same village, said: "I sold each bunch for Tk 600. This year I grew bananas on three and a half bighas, and the yield has been very good. At these prices I will sell more than Tk 5 lakh worth this year. If the market holds at this level, I expect a good profit."

Babul Hossain Talukder, a banana trader from Dhaka, said good-quality bananas also fetch higher prices. He sends three truckloads of green bananas to Dhaka every day. Bunches he bought for Tk 450-500 last year now cost him Tk 600, he said.

Md Jalal Uddin, a banana trader from Feni, buys wholesale at the market regularly. He said: "A month ago prices were even higher. Now, with more bananas coming into Dashmile market, prices have come down a little. But because the yield is good this year, farmers are making good profits."

Ershadul, a worker at Dashmile market, said a worker can earn up to a thousand taka a day loading trucks there, and several hundred workers are engaged in loading banana trucks every day.

Md Afzal Hossain, deputy director of the Dinajpur district DAE, said: "Bananas are a profitable crop. Farmers in this region are being given every kind of help to grow improved varieties, and the agriculture department is also advising them on getting good yields. As a result farmers have been able to produce bananas well. This year farmers are happy with both the yield and the price."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.