Betel nut (areca) farming is spreading quickly across Satkhira. Rows of palms now line homesteads, the banks of fish enclosures (gher) and the ridges between fields, and farmers are planting them commercially because the crop costs little and pays well.
The crop covered 1,150 bighas in the 2020-21 fiscal year and has reached 1,400 bighas this season. Growers expect 450 to 500 tonnes this year, and with dried nuts selling at Tk 450 to 500 a kilogram the harvest is worth about Tk 22.25 crore.
The palms double as fences for land and ponds and yield every year at little extra cost. Satkhira's nuts meet local demand and are sold across the country, and growing and trading them has created work for many people.
The district's largest market is Patkelghata bazaar in Tala upazila, which holds a betel nut haat twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Wholesaler Hazrat Ali said Tk 2 million to 2.5 million worth of nuts change hands at his depot alone on each market day, with buyers coming from Khulna and Jashore as well.
Arobindu Kumar, a farmer from Kumira village in Tala, grows betel nut as a companion crop among other fruit trees on three bighas and earns Tk 70,000 to 80,000 a year. Traders buy straight from his orchard.
Agriculturist Iqbal Ahmed, acting deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Satkhira, said farmers are using the coast's fertile soil and favourable weather, and that homestead and companion planting is opening a new source of income for the rural economy.
The report is by Krishi Shomoy's Satkhira correspondent.
Photo: Afifa Afrin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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