Sugarcane covers about 220 hectares in Jashore this year, and growers expect sales of about Tk 22 crore. The agriculture department has set a target of 22,000 tonnes. Dinajpur TV reported the story.
Cane yields better than other crops on the district's high, relatively poor land. With favourable weather the cane is sweeter and taller this year and demand is strong, so growers are getting Tk 5 to Tk 10 more a stick than last year. Moshiar Rahman of Bagherpara, who has worked in cane fields since he was 12, spent Tk 70,000 to Tk 80,000 on 8 kathas and expects to sell Tk 1.5 lakh worth.
There is another side to the profit. A severe shortage of chemical fertiliser and higher prices have raised production costs so much that many growers are not making the profit they expected even at higher prices.
About 15,000 sticks reach the Khaldhar Mor cane market in town every day, worth about Tk 6 lakh. A hundred sticks now sell for Tk 2,000 to Tk 10,000 depending on quality. Traders say they paid Tk 800 to Tk 900 for 100 sticks last year and Tk 1,200 to Tk 1,500 this year, and with transport costs they must charge Tk 2 to Tk 3 more a stick at wholesale. After local demand is met, the cane goes to Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat.
The Department of Agricultural Extension is training growers to raise intercrops with cane and advising them to rotate crops, planting cane on the same land only every one or two years rather than every year.
Photo: Biswarup Ganguly / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Source: Dinajpur TV
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