Farmer Syed Jamal Hossain of Kamalganj in Moulvibazar hopes to profit from growing sunflowers. This season he has planted them on one bigha, and the plants have already begun to flower.

On a visit to his field, each flower seemed to be smiling and spreading sunlight, with yellow blooms against green plants all around. Many people are coming from nearby areas to see the sight, and some stand among the flowers to take photographs.

Syed Jamal Hossain, 38, lives in Kamargaon village in Kamalganj municipality. Alongside social work he also farms. This year, after receiving free seed and fertiliser from the upazila agriculture office, he leased one bigha in Panishala village and planted sunflowers.

According to the Kamalganj upazila agriculture office, farmers are now growing sunflowers because the crop can be produced in a short time with little labour and fetches a good price. One kilogram of seed is needed per bigha. Seeds are sown one at a time a foot and a half apart, with rows also a foot and a half apart. It takes only 85 to 90 days from sowing to harvesting seed. The yield is 6 to 7 maunds a bigha, and the profit after costs is Tk 15,000 to 20,000 an acre, a better income for less work than any other crop.

Jamal Hossain said: "I leased one bigha and started growing sunflowers on the advice of the upazila agriculture officer. Unless there is a natural disaster, I hope to earn well."

Konok Lal Singha, sub-assistant agriculture officer in charge of Kamalganj municipality, said: "Free seed and fertiliser were given to encourage farmers to grow sunflowers. Each bigha will produce six to six and a half maunds of sunflower seed. Farmers have been encouraged to grow sunflowers to make them self-reliant. If it succeeds, sunflower cultivation will increase a lot in future."

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.