Patkel Bari in Magura is a village of date palm sap. Here tree owner Ershad has set up a large date palm orchard in the middle of the fields, with 400 trees. Three gachhis (tappers) have come from Bagha upazila in Rajshahi to work it: the brothers A Khalek and A Malek, along with Shyamal. Tapping began here at the start of October and will end in mid-February.

"We have come here for our livelihood," said gachhi A Khalek. "You could say we have a small household here. We came through Shahriar Sizan bhai. We will work in this orchard for four months. We worked the same way last year. Collecting sap and making gur and patali while staying in such remote fields in winter is hard, but we do it because it is our trade. The local people love and respect us a lot. That is the biggest reward."

"Cutting the trees and collecting sap is very challenging work," said gachhi Shyamal. "The three of us are staying here for four months. Sometimes we go back to Rajshahi for a visit. Cooking for ourselves here is very hard. We have to stay here at night, otherwise the sap gets stolen and there is other damage. Because there are few gachhis in this area, people depend on us. Living with the people here, it has become like a family relationship."

Young entrepreneurs Shahriar Sizan and Riju Biswas are selling the gur and patali made here in local markets and across the country through an online page. "Magura has a shortage of date palms and gachhis," Shahriar Sizan said. "Even the trees there are have no one to cut them. So we have brought experienced gachhis from Rajshahi for three to four months. The sap is collected and pure date palm gur made entirely by natural methods. In just four months we have made a profit of about Tk 2 lakh after production costs. We hope to make a profit of Tk 4 to 5 lakh this season. We have set the price of adulteration-free date palm patali at Tk 550 a kg, dana gur at Tk 450 and jhola gur at Tk 400."

Local teacher Biplob Ghosh said: "Date palms are disappearing day by day because they are used in brick kilns. Once, on winter mornings, gachhis collected sap and sold it from village to village. Pitha and puli made with date palm sap are tempting, and most pitha are made with date palm gur. When this season came there used to be a pitha festival. That atmosphere is now almost gone. For two years Shahriar Sizan has run an organic gur and patali unit for four months with gachhis from Rajshahi. People in the area are very enthusiastic, and the demand for gur and patali is being met."

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