Banana farming is spreading fast across Rangpur and Dinajpur, with Sagar, Malbhog, Chinichampa, Meher Sagar and other varieties grown over wide areas and young entrepreneurs drawn by low costs and good returns. But with no cold storage or processing and a syndicate of middlemen in the markets, growers are not getting fair prices, Krishi Shomoy reports.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension's Rangpur regional office, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts produced 112,357 tonnes of bananas on 4,208 hectares in 2022-23. In 2024-25 the five districts produced 134,916 tonnes on 4,077 hectares, 88,140 tonnes of it on 2,260 hectares in Rangpur district alone. Mango, the region's second fruit, yielded 75,564 tonnes on 5,808 hectares that year.
Dinajpur, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon grow bananas on 3,000 to 3,500 hectares a year. Bananas worth several crore taka change hands every day at Dosh Mile in Dinajpur, Shothibari in Mithapukur, Palashbari in Gaibandha and Phashitola in Gobindaganj, the report says.
The trouble starts after harvest. Bananas spoil quickly and must be sold fast. No public or private banana processing plant has been set up in the region, so nothing is made into chips, juice or powder, and for lack of good transport and packaging a large share is damaged on the way to Dhaka and other big markets.
Anwar Hossain, a farmer at Tokeya village in Payrabondh union, Mithapukur, said that when a lot of bananas are cut at once they have to be sold cheaply to middlemen because there is no cold store, and they start to rot if sale is delayed. Saju Mia of Tushbhandar Paikantari village in Kaliganj, Lalmonirhat, said planting 300 suckers on a bigha (27 decimals) costs Tk 40,000 to 50,000; a good bunch sells for Tk 400 to 500, so a bigha brings in Tk 120,000 to 150,000. With storage and processing, he said, profits could double or more.
Growers want collection centres near the markets to curb the middlemen. Sirajul Islam, additional director of the DAE's Rangpur region, said that with government support and private investment working together, Rangpur's bananas could meet domestic demand and be exported.
Photo: The Roving Rokibul / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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