With the floodwater gone, farmers on the chars and dry riverbeds of the Rangpur farm region have started winter crops by intercropping. Land is being prepared along the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Dudhkumar, Ghaghat, Jamuna and Karatoya rivers, BSS reports.
Md Saiful Islam, additional director of the Department of Agricultural Extension for the Rangpur region, said more than 82,000 hectares of char land in Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari produce about 600,000 tonnes of crops a year. At farm-gate prices that is worth about Tk 1,200 crore.
Sowing starts within days, he said. Harvesting begins at the end of December and the whole cycle finishes by May next year, before the monsoon. Despite the blows of climate change, he said, the winter crops of the chars keep the local economy moving.
Landless, poor and marginal farmers on the chars and banks grow potato, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, aubergine, green chilli, onion, garlic, maize, groundnut, sesame, tobacco, banana, pulses and watermelon on this land.
Dr Md Mamunur Rashid, a consultant on the Rupantar project of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Bangladesh, said char farming has become very profitable. People grow potato, pumpkin, onion, garlic, green chilli, mustard, pulses and winter vegetables on the sand of the Brahmaputra, Dharla and Teesta, especially by intercropping, and many families have become self-reliant with extension department support.
At Char Mohipur in Gangachara, Nur Islam, Golam Mostafa, Kabija Khatun and Morsheda Begum told BSS they are getting ready to sow on the Teesta chars. Baktar Ali and Momena Begum of Char Taluk Shahbaz in Kaunia, and Abdul Malek of Dhushmara char, are planting sweet pumpkin again after a good profit last year. In Nageshwari, Abu Saddam, Abdul Hamid and Sajedul Islam have finished preparing their land.
Source: BSS
Comments
(0)