CropsHill farmers in Ruma, Bandarban, are bundling and sun-drying jhum sesame; if no heavy rain falls for 15 days the harvest will be large, and white sesame is fetching up to Tk 6,500 a maund.
CropsTasleem hopes to earn about Tk 20 lakh in one season from cane on a sloping hill plot, but worries about selling it on time.
CropsJhum was grown on 5,000 hectares in Rangamati this year, with targets of 12,000 tonnes of rice and 25,000 tonnes of companion vegetables. Farmers say yields are good because pests stayed away.
FruitsAbout 100 acres of mixed fruit orchards in Rowangchhari, Bandarban, have no irrigation; water hauled by labourers from a stream 1.5 km away costs about Tk 2 a litre. The agriculture department is planning solar-powered pumps.
VegetablesIn Matiranga, Khagrachhari, where pointed gourd was hardly grown, sharecropper Anwar Hossain learned from YouTube videos and grows BARI-1 and BARI-2 on trellises in a paddy field; two neighbours have followed him.
AgrotechAt an Agriculture Information Service seminar in Rangamati, officials said artificial intelligence, drones, the Internet of Things and digital advisory services together could ease the limits of hill farming, and proposed one-stop farm services.
Rangamati produced 13,500 tonnes of pomelo on 1,175 hectares this year, worth Tk 20 crore to farmers and Tk 100 crore in trade, but growers lack cold storage and face higher transport costs.
EnvironmentICAR-IISWC's Chandigarh centre has released Sloping Agricultural Land Technology, a dual-purpose farm pond and a decision support app for designing spurs, gabion walls and check dams, aimed at the Shivalik hills.
GalleryProthom Alo photographer Supriyo Chakma's pictures from Mounaghar, Shimujjechhara and Bhuter Tila show an old farmer checking rice ears, a woman weeding and fishers setting out on a misty lake.
FruitsBARI Malta-1 is grown on 60 to 70 hectares in Rangamati Sadar, Naniarchar, Kawkhali and Baghaichhari; yields reach 12 tonnes a hectare and hill malta now goes to Dhaka and Chattogram.
CropsYields are good, but orchards, teak plantations, settlements and tired soil are shrinking jhum farming in Khagrachari every year; jhum covered 1,140 hectares in FY2026-27.
Favourable weather has brought a good jhum harvest to the Bandarban hills; at Notun Romjupara in Tonkaboti union, paddy shares the slopes with marfa, maize, pumpkin and other vegetables, and the harvest festival is under way on the hilltops.
VegetablesMohi Uddin of Banshbaria, Sitakunda, told Jagonews24 in October 2023 that he sold Tk 2.96 lakh of Rupban beans from about 250 decimals of hill land in one market; the report put his season's sales at Tk 8 lakh, with Tk 4 lakh more hoped for.
