Rangpur farmers profit from banana farming

Cultivation of bananas has become a highly profitable venture both in mainland and char areas making many farmers self-reliant alongside meeting their nutrition in Rangpur agriculture region.

Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) here said farmers are expanding banana cultivation after getting its bumper output and lucrative prices every year.

“Farmers have already cultivated bananas on the highest ever land area of 2,824 hectares till Monday in the region,” Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Mohammed Shah Alam said.

Transplantation of banana saplings will continue till this month-end in the region where farmers cultivated bananas on 2,756 hectares of land during the last season and on 2,559 hectares of land during the previous Rabi season.

Following massive motivation activities conducted by the DAE, especially after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, farmers are expanding the cultivation of bananas as a cash crop to reap more profits alongside strengthening their body immunity.

The DAE officials are assisting farmers and providing technical support to them in expanding cultivation of ‘Meher Sagar’, ‘Malbhog’, ‘Sobri’ and other varieties of banana on more lands both on the mainland and char areas.

“Tens of hundreds of small and marginal farmers, char dwellers and riverside people have cultivated bananas in all upazilas of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts in the region this season,” Alam said.

Meanwhile, harvesting of bananas has already begun with a bumper output of the cash crop and lucrative market prices bringing huge profits to farmers and making them happy.