Source of livelihood for northern people

Traditional date molasses has created income opportunities for many people in areas of Rajshahi where date trees are grown.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources, producing molasses with date juice has become a fortune changer for many farmers and scores of educated youths in the region.

They are involved in processing and marketing date molasses. Date tree farmers, locally known as gachhis, are now passing a busy time collecting date juice and processing molasses.

There are many date trees in fields and on roadsides in the region, including its vast Barind tract. Sources said five upazilas – Charghat, Bagha, Paba, Taherpur, and Puthiya – are famous for date molasses.

The trading of date molasses is going on in full swing as winter approaches its gravity, said local people.

Mozammel Hossain, 54, a date juice extractor in Salua village under Puthiya, said he has 170 trees on six and a half bighas of land and earns around Tk 2,00,000 every year.

A date tree gives juice, cooking materials, molasses, and other products, he said, adding molasses produced by farmers are being exported to many foreign countries, boosting the rural economy.

Abdul Jabbar, another date juice harvester in the same village, said he has no date trees of his own. Every season, he manages to collect juice from 150 trees at a cost of Tk 175 per tree.

He processes around 25 kilogrammes of molasses from the collected juice every day. He meets his annual family needs with profits from the seasonal molasses business.

Golam Faruque of Halidagachhi village under Charghat upazila, a molasses wholesaler at Jhalmalia Haat in Puthiya, said the sale volume of molasses on every haat day is more than Tk 1 crore.

Potters are struggling to supply specially designed small earthen pots for collection of juice and big ones for boiling the juice to produce molasses, which is sold in markets all over the country through traders.

Golam hoped that the business will play a vital role in changing the socio-economic picture of the whole region if everybody comes forward to plant the trees in fallow lands.

Trader Anwar Hossain, who comes to Bagha Bazar from Barishal every year to purchase molasses, said he purchased 40 maunds of molasses at Tk 65 per kilogramme.

Mohsin Ali, a retailer at the same market, said he sold molasses at Tk 75 per kilogramme last week and the retail price is now declining with rising production.

Abdul Awal, deputy director of DAE in Rajshahi, said there are more than eight lakh date trees in the district producing around 8,500 tonnes of molasses worth around Tk 66 crore every season.