Kumra bori making brings extra income to village families in Pabna

On 11 January 2026, Jagonews24's district correspondent in Pabna reported that the winter season of kumra bori making was in full swing in the district's villages. Kumra bori are small dumplings of ground lentil paste mixed with ripe ash gourd (chal kumra), black cumin and other ingredients, set out on cloth and dried in the sun. Housewives make them at home, often with the whole household and the men of the family helping, and many now make them for sale. Makers in Chatmohar and Faridpur upazilas told the paper the bori gave them a useful extra income, and the deputy general manager of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) in Pabna said his office would help makers who asked for loans, marketing support or training.

In the early morning chill of winter, while others were still asleep under their quilts, housewives in Pabna were already at work, the report said: some grinding soaked lentils on a stone slab (pata), others making the lentil paste in a machine. They then mixed the paste with ripe ash gourd, black cumin and other ingredients to make kumra bori.

Because of their distinctive taste, the report said, kumra bori are among the favourite additions to a Bengali curry. A few bori dropped into a fish curry or into labra, a mixed vegetable dish, lift its flavour several times over, and over time the bori have become part of Bengali food heritage.

Good demand in the markets brought good prices too, so from the very start of winter the villages of Pabna became busy making bori, and that winter was no exception. Because the work needs little money and modest labour, many families had begun to make the bori commercially for extra income, with men helping the women. In this way, the report said, bori making was quietly growing in the district's villages, creating stories of new prosperity and self-reliance and widening the craft's commercial prospects.

According to the information the correspondent gathered, kumra bori are made to some extent in villages of all nine upazilas of Pabna, but most of it comes from Chatmohar, Faridpur, Santhia and Sujanagar upazilas. In Chatmohar, more than a thousand families in Foiljana, Dolong, Ramnagar, Mathurapur, Bonthar, Kumargara, Handial and the municipal area were involved in making and selling bori. In Faridpur upazila, bori were made in most villages, including Demra, Demra Madhyapara, Ratanpur and Pathar. Villages in Santhia, Sujanagar and Sadar upazilas likewise became busy making bori from the start of winter.

Pabna is a district of Rajshahi division covering 2,376.13 square kilometres, according to Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia published by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. It is bounded by Natore and Sirajganj districts to the north; the Padma river and Rajbari and Kushtia districts to the south; and Manikganj and Sirajganj districts and the Jamuna river to the east. The district was formed in 1832. Its main rivers are the Padma, Baral, Jamuna, Ichamati, Atrai, Hurasagar and Chiknai, and Chalan Beel is its notable wetland. The 2011 population census counted 2,523,179 people in the district, and Banglapedia lists agriculture as the main source of income for 53.75 per cent of households, followed by commerce at 14.97 per cent.

Chatmohar, the upazila with the largest number of bori-making families in the report, covers 310.10 square kilometres in the north of the district, with Gurudaspur and Tarash upazilas on its northern side. Chatmohar thana was formed in 1909 and became an upazila in 1982. It has one municipality and 11 unions, among them Failjana, Mothurapur and Handial, the areas the report names. Its main rivers are the Baral, Chiknai and Atrai, and Failam Beel, Chalan Beel, Kural Beel and Diksal Beel are its notable wetlands. The 2011 census counted 291,121 people there. Agriculture is the main source of income for 71 per cent of households, and Banglapedia lists paddy, jute, wheat, potato, chilli, onion, garlic, khesari, musur (lentil), mustard, chickpea, coriander and betel nut as its main crops. Among its 27 hats and bazars are Chatmohar Rail Bazar, Mirzapur, Mothurapur and Chatmohar Natun Bazar.

Faridpur upazila of Pabna, home to Demra and Ratanpur, is one of the district's smaller upazilas at 137.67 square kilometres, with 130,335 people in 2011. Santhia covers 331.55 square kilometres and had 380,301 people; its main rivers are the Ichamati, Baral and Atrai, its main crops are paddy, wheat, potato, onion, vegetables and mustard, and 65.44 per cent of households depend mainly on agriculture. Sujanagar, on the Padma, covers 338.65 square kilometres and had 278,096 people; its main crops are paddy, wheat, jute, sugarcane, groundnut, onion, garlic and vegetables, and 61.17 per cent of households live mainly on agriculture.

Visiting these areas and talking to the people involved, the correspondent found that throughout the winter housewives made kumra bori at home, with everyone in the household, young and old, lending a hand. When the weather was good, makers producing for sale worked almost every day. Starting very early in the morning, three to five people working for four to four and a half hours could make about a maund of bori in a day, and some made more. One kilogram of kumra bori took 800-900 grams of lentils, some black cumin and a little ripe ash gourd. The bori were set out on cloth and dried for two to three days, after which they were ready to sell.

The maund (mon), the unit the makers used, is one of Bangladesh's traditional measures of weight. Banglapedia's entry on agrometrology notes that districts have long had their own local units for agricultural goods, that 40 seers make one maund in the common reckoning, and that the government introduced the metric system of weights and measures through an ordinance from 1982, although the old units are still in everyday use in rural markets.

Earlier reports from neighbouring districts describe the same work step by step. A Bangla Tribune report from Atrai upazila of Naogaon, published on 8 January 2021, said the black gram (mashkalai) was first dried in the sun, broken in a hand mill (jata) and cleaned, then soaked in water for about five to six hours and its husks removed. It was then ground in a dhenki, the foot-operated wooden husking pedal, or on a pata, and mixed with the ash gourd. From dawn, in sunny open spaces, courtyards and rooftops, the bori were set in rows on thin cloth to dry. They needed two to three days of continuous sun, the report said, or three to four days when the sunlight was weak, and a mix of five kilograms of ash gourd with two kilograms of black gram made good bori. A maker there said the busy bori season ran for six months, from the Bengali month of Ashwin to Falgun, and that families kept what they needed and sold the rest.

A Prothom Alo report of 9 December 2024 from Naogaon village in Tarash upazila of Sirajganj described women mixing a paste of rice, kumra and black gram in the cool of the morning and then dropping the bori onto thin cloth stretched over nets made of bamboo sticks; once the bori had hardened a little in the sun, others spread them out to finish drying. A report by the state news agency BSS from Meherpur, published on 10 December 2025, described a full day's preparation in every household: grating the ash gourd, preparing and soaking the dal, washing and dehulling it, often in groups at pond steps or river banks at dawn, and grinding it early in the morning, so that the bori could be set out as soon as the sun rose. Dried and stored in jars, BSS reported, the bori kept the family supplied for the whole year.

The gourd that gives kumra bori its name is the ash gourd, known in Bangladesh as chal kumra or chalkumda. Banglapedia describes it as Benincasa hispida, possibly native to the Indian subcontinent. It can be grown on any soil, though loamy and sandy loam soils are preferred; the best sowing time is February to March. Green fruits are ready for harvest in 45 to 60 days, while mature fruits, coated with a powdery substance, are harvested 80 to 90 days after sowing. Local varieties include Sachi kumra and Dimi kumra, and yields range from 20 to 30 tonnes a hectare. The encyclopedia notes that the mature fruits are mashed and mixed with black gram to make bori, which are dried in the sun for preservation and are a delicacy cooked with fish, and that mature fruits are also used for a sweet called morabba, while tender leaves and twigs are eaten as a leafy vegetable.

In the BSS report from Meherpur, the district's deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said there was no substitute for ash gourd in making bori. To meet local demand, he said, ash gourd was now being grown commercially, on homestead land, fallow plots and as a companion crop; a bigha could bring in 50,000 to 60,000 taka worth of gourds, and the crop could be picked about 100 days after planting.

For the lentil part, the Pabna makers in the Jagonews24 report used anchor dal; Masura Begum of Ratanpur said they soaked it the day before making the bori. The reports from Atrai, Sirajganj and Meherpur describe black gram, known as mashkalai or kalai, as the traditional base. Banglapedia calls mashkalai one of the most highly prized pulses in Bangladesh, eaten boiled whole or split as dal; its dried seeds contain about 23.4 per cent protein, 57.3 per cent carbohydrate, 1 per cent fat, 3.8 per cent fibre and 9.7 per cent water. The plant is also grown as a green manure, cover crop and fodder.

Pulses as a group contain 20-25 per cent protein, Banglapedia notes, and because they cost less than animal foods they are sometimes called "poor man's meat". The encyclopedia lists masur (lentil), mung, mashkalai, chickpea, khesari and motor (pea) as the country's common pulses, grown mainly as winter (rabi) crops in the western and northern parts of the country, and notes that the area under pulses has been squeezed by competition with rice and that national production has fallen short of requirement. Pabna itself is home to one of the country's pulse research stations: Banglapedia lists a Dal (pulses) Research Centre among the important installations of Ishwardi upazila.

The third ingredient named in the report, kalojira or black cumin, is a spice. Banglapedia notes that the value of spices lies in their aroma, which comes from their essential oils, rather than in their food value; in bori the small black seeds are mixed into the paste for flavour.

That winter, the Pabna makers told the correspondent, it cost Tk 60-70 to make a kilogram of bori with anchor dal, and grinding the lentils by machine added Tk 10 a kilogram. The makers sold the bori wholesale at Tk 90-110 a kilogram. Bori made in Pabna did not stay in the district: it went to Dhaka, Chattogram and other districts, and families sent it to relatives living abroad. In this way, the report said, the ingredient was spreading and the extra income was improving the circumstances of rural households.

Prices in earlier reports from other districts were higher, but they describe different dals and different points in the trade. In Atrai in January 2021, a woman maker told Bangla Tribune that making a kilogram of bori cost about Tk 120 and that it sold in the market for Tk 200-250; black gram was then selling locally at Tk 100-120 a kilogram and ash gourd at Tk 15-20 a kilogram, or Tk 50-70 a gourd depending on size. A bori trader there said demand was highest in Dhaka, Jashore and Khulna. In Sirajganj in December 2024, a trader told Prothom Alo that ordinary kumra bori sold at Tk 200-250 a kilogram and good-quality bori at Tk 450-500 in the market, but that makers sold to wholesalers at much lower prices; 15 to 20 families in the village were involved, and women workers there earned Tk 150-200 for one and a half to two hours' work a day.

In Meherpur in December 2025, a bori trader in the town's main bazar told BSS that the reputation of the local bori had spread across the country and that he sold about a maund a day. Demand had fallen for a few years, he said, because some sellers had mixed in other vegetables and sold bori cheaply, but it had started to rise again from the previous year.

Usha Rani of Dolong village in Chatmohar told the correspondent: "Quite a few families in this village have been making bori for 50 years. We used to grind the lentils on a stone slab; now many people do it by machine. It is hard work, but we earn well from it."

Abu Sayeed of Demra Madhyapara in Faridpur upazila said: "If you get up at three in the morning and work until seven, you can make about a maund of bori. We make them in the morning and sell them wholesale in the markets at Tk 100 a kilogram. We make a profit of Tk 20-30 a kilogram. With this extra income on top of our normal earnings, we are doing well."

Masura Begum of Ratanpur said: "We make bori all through the winter. We soak the anchor dal the day before and make the bori the next day. After they dry in the sun, the men of the house sell them. In some households the men make them too."

Makers in other districts have described the work in similar terms. In the Sirajganj report, women said they made bori between their household tasks and spent what they earned on the family, and a trader whose family had long been in the business said modern equipment had made the work somewhat easier and that with government support they could make bori on a larger scale. In Meherpur, a housewife told BSS that the work was heavy, with preparation running from the afternoon into the night and grinding before dawn, but that the taste made up for it.

Shamim Hossain, deputy general manager of BSCIC in Pabna, told the correspondent: "The extra income entrepreneurs earn from making bori is contributing to the economy. If entrepreneurs seek our help to keep this industry going, we will certainly provide it. If needed, we will help them get low-interest loans on easy terms. Along with help in sales and marketing, we will also arrange training."

BSCIC is the government corporation charged with promoting small, cottage and rural industries in the private sector. Banglapedia records that it began as the East Pakistan Small and Cottage Industries Corporation under an act passed on 14 March 1957 and was renamed BSCIC in 1972. Its work moved over time from importing machinery and raw materials to promotion and development: advisory services, industrial estates, design centres, entrepreneurship and trade-based skill training, help with credit through banks and financial institutions, and fairs and exhibitions to promote small manufacturers' products. Banglapedia lists its network as four regional offices, 64 industries service centres, 74 industrial estates and 15 skill development centres, along with the Small and Cottage Industries Training Institute it set up in 1985.

Similar offers have been made to bori makers elsewhere. In the December 2024 Sirajganj report, the upazila executive officer said bori making had improved many people's living standards and that the administration would help expand the business by arranging the loans makers needed. In the Atrai report of January 2021, the upazila agriculture officer said rural women could improve their own fortunes and contribute significantly to the rural economy if they received proper training and support.

Kumra bori are made by hand in home kitchens and courtyards and dried in the open, so the general food hygiene rules of the World Health Organization apply to them as to any home-prepared food. WHO's Five Keys to Safer Food, as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) set them out on 21 December 2015, are:

• Use safe water and ingredients: use safe water or treat it to make it safe, select fresh and wholesome foods, wash fruits and vegetables, and do not use food beyond its expiry date.
• Keep hands, utensils and surfaces clean: wash hands before handling food and often during food preparation, wash hands after going to the toilet, clean all surfaces and equipment used in preparing food, and protect kitchen areas from insects, rodents and other animals.
• Cook food thoroughly, and reheat cooked food thoroughly.
• Keep food at safe temperatures: do not leave cooked food at room temperature for more than two hours.
• Separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from other foods, and use separate knives and cutting boards for raw foods.

For bori makers, the first two keys cover the steps the reports describe: the water used to soak and wash the dal, the stone slab or grinding machine, the cloth on which the paste is set, and protecting the drying bori from birds, insects and animals. Bori are cooked in curries before they are eaten.

Photo: Sujay25 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Banglapedia (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh), Bangla Tribune, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization