Home ›› 04 Jan 2023 ›› Nation
Many char people are happily reaping rewarding profits from pumpkin cultivation using intercropping and relay methods on char lands in all five districts of the Rangpur agriculture region.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said char people are getting lucrative prices for their newly harvested pumpkin cultivated on char lands to tackle the global crises caused by the Russia-Ukraine War and the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
Additional Director of the DAE at its regional office Agriculturist Mohammad Shah Alam said hundreds of landless char and riverside people have cultivated pumpkins with other Rabi crops on char lands adopting intercropping and relay methods.
Like in previous years, the government through the DAE provided special incentives and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute and different NGOs extended assistance to char people to promote crop cultivation on char lands this season.
Deputy Director (Leave Reserved) of the DAE at Khamarbari in Dhaka Abu Sayem said many poor char and riverside families have changed their fortune through farming pumpkins with other crops on dried-up riverbeds and char lands in the last 13 years.
"Hundreds of char people have sowed pumpkin seeds on sandy char lands and silted-up beds of the Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Dudhkumar, Teesta, Dharla, Kartoa, Ghaghot and other rivers to complete harvesting of the crops by May next," Sayem said.
They have already started harvesting pumpkins in Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Gaibandha districts of the region and selling every piece at rates between Tk 60 and 100 depending on size and varieties to lead a better life.
A number of char people said they have cultivated pumpkins, onion, maize, wheat, pulses, squash, garlic, vegetables, green chilli, squash, potato, aubergine, sweet potato and many other Rabi crops on the sandy char lands and dried-up riverbeds.
Char and riverside people Kochhim Uddin, Abdur Razzaque, Kobiza Khatun and Morsheda Begum of village Paschim Mohipur in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur said they have won extreme poverty through pumpkin cultivation on char lands.
"We usually spend Tk 15,000 to 20,000 for farming pumpkin on 200 sandbars each to sell the produce at Tk 45,000 to 55,000 and earn a net profit of Tk 30,000 to 35,000 annually after completing harvest by May every year," said Mahbub Alam of the village.
Marginal farmers Abdur Rahim and Hossain Ali of Dhushmara Char village in Kawnia upazila of Rangpur said they have cultivated pumpkins with banana, onion, garlic, vegetables, green chilli, potato and aubergine on char lands and dried-up riverbeds like many others.
