Home ›› 22 Jul 2022 ›› Nation
The agricultural economy in the southern region has taken one step further with the production of 27 lakh bales of jute (one bale equals 180 kg) on about 2.5 lakh hectares of land this year.
Local sources said the region’s farmers are now passing busy time harvesting and processing the jute.
Privately owned jute mills buy raw jute from these farmers as there are no state-run mills in the region. Last year, farmers sold every maund of raw jute at Tk 2,000-2,500 and they expect fair prices this year as well.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), in FY2021-22, around 77.25 lakh bales of jute were produced in the country against a target production of 85 lakh bales.
The production target this year is 85,55,360 bales of jute. Experts expect the harvest to exceed the target despite the recent floods in some areas of the country.
As the weather is fairly favourable for jute this year, agronomists are expecting the production to reach 11.50 tonnes (or around 35.21 bales) per hectare.
However, due to the less-than-normal rainfall this monsoon so far, farmers are worried about rotting the jute bales properly on time.
DAE Barishal Additional Director Hridayeshwar Datta said about 30 per cent of the country’s jute is cultivated in the southern region.
In 2020, following the closure of the state-run jute mills amid the Covid-19 pandemic, farmers were worried about selling their cash crops.
However, they continued cultivation in hopes of selling the jute to the private mills and getting higher prices than paddy.
One maund of jute was sold at Tk 1,800-2,000 that year.
Development and expansion
Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) officials say there is enough scope for the expansion of jute cultivation in this region. DAE has also taken initiative to implement intensive programmes at the field level.
BJRI has developed saltwater tolerant jute varieties suitable for the environment in the south. The recently developed Nabi varieties of jute seeds are of better quality and have higher yields than the imported seeds.
After Aman and Boro paddy, jute has become a major contributor to the agricultural economy in the southern region.
There are 24 jute mills in this region — including the largest two in the country — but only 13 of them are currently operational.
There are five state-run jute mills in Barishal that are not operational due to bank debts and a lack of capital.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, about 40 lakh people in the country are dependent on jute cultivation and trade. Jute cultivation contributes 0.26 per cent to the GDP and 1.14 per cent to the agriculture sector.
Barishal Divisional Assistant Controller of Import and Export Department Md Ziaur Rahman said the export income from raw jute and jute products is about $1 billion. A major portion of the earnings comes from the jute yarn.
The sector’s growth has steadily continued in the past few years. The overall economic growth in this sector is around 25-30 per cent. In FY2019-20, export earnings from jute products had even surpassed leather products.
More possibilities
Apart from this, charcoal from jute sticks has gained popularity in some countries around the world, including China, over the last few years.
However, charcoal exports stopped after last month’s massive fire at the BM Container Depot in Chattogram, as the buyer companies are not having the containers loaded with charcoal shipped over safety concerns.
Previously, charcoals worth about $300 million were exported annually.
Md Rafiqul Islam, the Barishal divisional coordinator of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, said it would be possible to meet a large part of the fuel needs of rural areas if jute cultivation increased.
Jute sticks are used as fuel by a large population of jute-producing areas of the region. This lessens the number of trees cut to be used as firewood, he said.
“Partex boards made of jute sticks are also popular. Jute cultivation contributes to the development of the country’s economy and environment,” he added.
