Cultivation resumes on Rangpur char

Like in the previous years, many people have begun cultivation of winter crops adopting intercropping methods on char lands this season in Rangpur agriculture region.

Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said char people started sowing crop seed on char lands and dried-up riverbeds following the appearance of shoals with massive deposition of alluvial soils during floods.

Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Mohammad Shah Alam said char people have been cultivating various crops on around 90,000 hectares of land in all five districts of the region every year in recent times.

“Hundreds of enthusiastic people are farming crops and tender plants of some crops are growing well on char lands, shoals and silted-up beds of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Dudhkumar, Ghaghot, Jamuna, Kartoa and other rivers in the region,” he said.

The landless, poor and marginal farmers living in char and river bank areas generally cultivate potato, pumpkin, brinjal, green chilli, onion, garlic and maize, groundnut, kawn, sesame, tobacco, banana, pulses and watermelon and other crops on char lands every year.

“They will begin harvesting the crops from late December to end the process before the commencement of the rainy season,” Alam said.

The flood-affected people of char and riverine areas have put their maximum efforts into cultivating crops on their flood-hit char lands across the region.

Deputy Director (Leave Reserved) of the DAE at Khamarbari in Dhaka Agriculturist Abu Sayem said crop farming is expanding every year on char lands in Rangpur region, mostly adopting intercropping methods, benefiting many char people.

People living in char villages of Gannarpar, Buridangi, Singhimari, Miazipara, Motukpur, Kolkond, Bagdohra, Nohali, Chhalapak and other char areas in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur are busy now in cultivating various crops on char lands.