Gachhis (date palm sap tappers) in Faridpur are busy making date palm molasses. Their work picks up from the Bengali month of Agrahayan. The pure, tasty molasses they make meets the district's demand and goes to districts and upazilas across the country. The agriculture department is advising gachhis and young entrepreneurs to keep up the quality.

Faridpur's date palm molasses and patali are famous nationwide, and people from other areas crowd in to buy them. After meeting local demand, the molasses goes to various parts of the country. It is selling at Tk 600 a kg.

This activity can be seen all over Tambulkhana in Faridpur town. At the crack of dawn, the gachhis set out to collect the sap, bringing down the sap-filled pots from the trees and hurrying with them to the stoves. The sap is poured into a large tin pan (tafal) and boiled to start the process, slowly thickening into tasty date molasses.

Gachhi Goffar Sheikh said the trees are cut and pots hung the afternoon before, and the next morning the sap is collected and molasses-making begins. The molasses is sold in the market as well as to local people.

Buyer Mizanur Rahman said most molasses in the market is adulterated and it is hard to recognise pure molasses, so people come straight to the gachhis and producers for pure sap and molasses. To keep the tradition alive, young entrepreneur Enamul Hasan Gias has bought about 600 date palm trees on his own initiative. He said he has brought gachhis from Rajshahi, Jashore and other regions to make pure molasses. This raises the cost, but he is making molasses free of adulteration.

Faridpur Sadar agriculture officer Md Anwar Hossain said Faridpur has more than 1.5 lakh date palm trees, large and small. Adulterated molasses is made in many places in the country, but young entrepreneurs in Faridpur do not have this tendency, so alongside planting date palms they are being advised on various matters, he said.

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