Shankar Chandra Majumder of Subarnachar, Noakhali, has built a living from banana bark and water hyacinth that others throw away. With a machine set up in his yard he produces more than 10 kg of yarn a day and earns at least Tk 1 lakh a month.
Shankar, 41, was once unemployed. He learned to make yarn from banana stems and water hyacinth by watching YouTube and started on his own. Besides family members, 15 workers now help him.
After cleaning and drying, the yarn sells at Tk 500 a kilo to factories in Gazipur. The banana stem left after the fibre is stripped also sells, at Tk 40 a kilo.
His yarn goes into clothing, T-shirts, trousers, underwear and bags, while the water hyacinth is made into handicrafts.
Akib Osman, Subarnachar's upazila nirbahi officer, welcomed the venture and said the government would support the entrepreneur where it could.
Banana plants are usually discarded after harvest. People involved say training, technology and market access could turn such neglected material into rural jobs. Agricare24 published the report crediting Bangladesh Pratidin.
Photo: fibre extracted from banana stems, Fridah Kaguri / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Agricare24
Comments
(0)