Lakshmipur is set to trade about Tk 710 crore of areca nut (betel nut) this season, according to the agriculture department. More than a hundred markets across the district are busy day and night with buyers and sellers, Prothom Alo reports. Local traders buy from village markets and bring the nuts to larger ones, where wholesalers from outside the district buy them.
At the Uttar Tehmoni market in Lakshmipur town, areca nut is traded two days a week. Seller Nazrul Islam said ripe nuts are fetching Tk 150 to 170 per pon (80 nuts) and Tk 2,400 to 2,700 per kaun (1,280 nuts); this market alone turns over Tk 1 crore to 1.5 crore a week. Mokhlesur Rahman of Raipur, in the trade for two decades, says Tk 20 crore to 25 crore passes through his hands each year.
Areca nut is sold three ways: ripe, soaked and dried. The agriculture department says about 60 percent of the crop is soaked in rivers, canals, ponds or water-filled cement tanks, and the rest is sold fresh or sun-dried. Farmer Mofiz Uddin of Char Mohona in Raipur said that when the nuts ripen in November and December, stockists club together to buy and soak them; once farmers have sold out, prices jump from January to March.
The season also lifts the earnings of the climbers who pick the nuts. Rubel Hossain of Kerowa in Raipur, who has done the work for 20 years, is paid Tk 10 a tree and climbs 250 to 300 trees a day, earning Tk 2,500 to 3,000. A tree can be picked two or three times a season.
The district had 7,245 hectares of areca gardens last year and about 7,250 hectares now. Last year it produced 42,270 tonnes; this year's target is about 42,350 tonnes. An areca palm bears for more than 30 years, so farmers are keen to plant new gardens for long-term income.
Zahir Ahmed, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in the district, said Kartik and Agrahayan (mid-October to mid-December) are the main picking months and give the rural economy a lift. More than half the district's crop comes from Raipur, followed by Sadar upazila. Counting ripe, dried and soaked nuts, he expects farmers to sell about Tk 710 crore this year.
Reporting: ABM Ripon, Prothom Alo
Source: Prothom Alo
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