Banana cultivation is expanding steadily in Tangail on suitable soil and favourable weather. All 12 upazilas grow some, but the largest orchards are in the hill tracts of Madhupur, Ghatail and Sakhipur and on the Jamuna chars of Bhuapur, Tangail Sadar and Kalihati, where hundreds of farmers have become self-reliant by planting hill land and char silt that once lay fallow. Growers profit from Amritsagar, Mehersagar, Champa and Sabri bananas as well as cooking bananas, and the fruit leaves daily by river and road for Dhaka and markets across the country.

Grower Mohammad Sanowar Hossain put the economics plainly: a bunch costs about Tk 200-250 to produce including the land lease and sells for Tk 400 to 550, but with 350 plants to a bigha not every bunch is sold, and the loss of about 50 plants has to be built into the sum. Kachar Uddin, growing since 2007, has two acres and is adding three more this year; he sells bunches for up to Tk 450 but warns of Sigatoka disease, which turns the leaves red and kills them. Zahirul Islam said the crop pays well when storms, rain or pests stay away, and this year's profit was reasonable.

Ashek Parvez, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Tangail, said the district grows Mehersagar, Amritsagar and other varieties on about 5,250 hectares, with Madhupur's Mehersagar meeting a large share of Dhaka's demand. Demonstrations and support projects run through the agricultural research institute supply better varieties, and where Panama or Sigatoka disease takes hold or the crop fails, farmers are advised and helped to switch to papaya, sugarcane or watermelon.

Those in the sector say growers often miss a fair price for want of proper storage and processing; closer official supervision is needed against price and disease losses, and with modern storage and cold stores Tangail's bananas could meet local and national demand and reach export markets.

From a Banglavision report by Ataur Rahman Azad, Tangail. Source: Banglavision