Home ›› 18 Sep 2021 ›› Nation
Tea farming on plain land in five upazilas of Lalmonirhat is gaining momentum with the authorities providing farmers necessary supports.
Some 148 acres of land of Sadar, Kaliganj, Aditmari, Hatibandha and Patgram upazillas under the district have been brought under the cultivation of popular beverage engaging 91 farmers in the district, according to the Bangladesh Tea Board (BTB) sources.
Arif Khan, project director of BTB Lalmonirhat, said there is a huge potentiality of tea farming in the district.
BTB conducted the farming in 2007-2014 in the district experimentally. Finding the potentiality and viability it later engaged the farmers in tea farming from 2016. The 91 farmers engaged in tea farming in 148 acres of land have a target of bringing in 100 hectares of plain land under the cultivation by June 2023.
“We are giving technical support and incentives to the farmers to expedite the farming, “Arif Khan added.
“We launched a mobile school - Camellia Khola Akash School - to give advice and technology support to the farmers for the farming in the district. Our expertise and technicians of the school reach the farmers whenever they need any help or support,” he added.
It was presumed earlier that tea farming could be possible only in hilly areas. The practise developed in the sub-continent during the British era due to their land utilisation policy for crop farming.
However, agro scientists posited that tea farming is possible on flat lands where sandy loam soil and enough rainfall are available.
Neighbouring India developed massive Tea gardens in the bordering areas, near the no-man’s land inside their territory adjacent to Lalmonirhat, Panchagarh, and Kurigram districts of Bangladesh, Arif Khan added.
A tea farmer at Baura village under Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat, Enayet Miah, said he was getting benefit by cultivating tea on a one-and-a-half acre of plain land.
“Earlier, we know that tea is produced only in hilly areas of the country. But with the support of BTB, we succeeded in producing the crop on plain land in our district,” he added.
The President of Patgram Tea Garden Malik Unnayon Samity, Nazrul Islam Belal, said, he planted saplings on 12 acres of land in 2014 at Dahogram Angorpota under Patgram upazila of the district. He started plucking green leaves of the plants from the garden in 2017.
Belal said he used to pluck green leaves from his garden after thirty-five days. The quantity is around 20,000- 24,000 kg. He could puck leaves at least eight times in a year. At present one kg green leaves are sold at Tk 22-25 in the local markets.
The price of the produce of the garden stood at least Tk 30-35 lakh. He had to spend around Tk 20 lakh nurturing the garden, including staff payments.He said tea gardening is very profitable that could create huge job generation in the district.
He also mentioned that there are no facilities for tea-processing factories in the district. A processing factory was set up at Hatibandha upazila of the district but it remained closed. They had to sell the produce transporting 150 kilometers away at Panchagor district that bears an additional cost.
Another farmer, Ferdous Alam who is the owner of Soma and Soma Tea Processing Ltd at Votmari union under Hatibandha upazila of the district said he set up the processing factory in 2014 spending Tk 7 crore.
But he could not run the factory due to the low voltage of power supply and lack of required green leaves every day in the factory. Now, the factory became a losing concern. It incurred a loss of around Tk 2 crore.
President, Small Tea Garden Owners Association, Rangpur division Amirul Haque Khokon said, tea cultivation and production are increasing in the northern districts. There is a huge potentiality to flourish the tea industry in the region and to create employment opportunities for a large number of people.
