Peanut prices make northern region farmers happy

The farmers are very happy getting an all-time record peanut price after producing 20,893 tonnes of yield during the last Rabi and just-ended Kharif-1 seasons in the Rangpur agriculture region.

Market sources said farmers are very happy to earn an all-time record profit from selling their harvested peanuts to wholesalers at rates between Tk 4,500 to 4,800 per mound (every 40 kg).

Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid said farmers can earn up to Tk 50,000 by producing 25 to 30 mounds of peanut per acre of land spending Tk 24,000 on farming costs.

Additional Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) for the Rangpur region Md Emdad Hossain Sheikh said a target of producing 11,688 tonnes of peanut was fixed from 6,015 hectares of land for the region during the last Rabi season.

Enthusiastic farmers, however, finally brought 6,190 hectares of land under peanut cultivation exceeding the fixed farming target by 175 hectares of land.

After completing the harvest, farmers produced 11,988 tonnes of peanut, higher by 300 tonnes than the fixed production target in the Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari districts of the region during the last Rabi season.

During the previous 2020-2021 Rabi season, farmers produced 11,087 tonnes of peanut by cultivating the crop on 6,190 hectares of land in the region.

Similarly, farmers produced 8,905 tonnes of peanut from 4,452 hectares of land during the just-ended Kharif-1 season in the region.

“During the previous Kharif-1 season, farmers produced 8,191 tonnes of peanut after cultivating the crop on 4,400 hectares of land in the region,” he said.

Farmers are getting excellent peanut yield by cultivating its high-yielding varieties evolved by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) across the region in recent years.

“With the increasing demand of peanut in the boosting food industry sector, farmers are expanding peanut cultivation on main lands and vast char areas after getting repeated bumper output with lucrative prices in recent years,” Hossain added.

Peanut farming both on the mainland and vast riverine sandy char areas is expanding during the last thirteen consecutive years following a huge boost in the food industry increasing demand for agro-commodity.

“More than 6,000 farmers, mostly living in char areas or riverside villages, have achieved self-reliance by cultivating peanut on sandy char lands with the assistance of the DAE and different NGOs to improve their livelihoods and living standard,” Rashid added.

Peanut trader Mokhlesur Rahman at Rangpur City Bazar Market said farmers are selling their just-harvested peanut in the last Kharif-1 season to wholesalers at rates between Tk 4,500 and 4,800 per mound depending on varieties and qualities.

“We are selling peanut to the retailers at rates between Tk 4,800 and Tk 5,000 per mound after purchasing those from farmers at rural areas and local markets of all five districts in the Rangpur agriculture region,” Rahman said.

Farmers Abdur Rouf, Abul Hashem, Saidul Islam, Rashidul Haque, Nur Alam and Abdul Bari of different char villages on the Teesta riverbed in the region said they got bumper peanut output during the last Rabi and Kharif-1 seasons with lucrative prices.