Peanut prices make northern farmers happy

As harvest of groundnut continues with bumper output, its rewarding market price has made farmers happy in Rangpur agriculture region amidst global crises caused by the Russia-Ukraine War and Covid-19 pandemic.

Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said a target of producing 12,240 tonnes of groundnut from 6,301 hectares of land was fixed for all five districts in the region during the current Rabi season.

"Farmers have so far cultivated groundnut on 5,628 hectares of land," Additional Director of the DAE's Rangpur region Agriculturist Mohammad Shah Alam said.

Till Sunday, farmers have harvested groundnuts on 320 hectares of land producing 525 tonnes of the crop at the average yield rate of 1.64 tonnes per hectare of land.

Farmers said they are earning an all-time record net profit to the tune of Tk 85,000 by producing 27 to 30 mounds of groundnut per acre of land spending Tk 25,000 as farming costs on an average this season.

"Farmers are selling newly harvested groundnuts at rates between Tk 5,200 and Tk 6,000 per mound (every 40-kg)," groundnut trader Mokhlesur Rahman at Rangpur City Bazar told BSS today.

Last year, farmers sold their newly harvested groundnut at rates between Tk 3,000 and Tk 3,200 per mound at this period of the season.

Farmers are getting bumper groundnut production with rewarding prices following expanded cultivation of its high yielding varieties evolved by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) on the main lands and char areas.

Deputy Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Md. Mahbubar Rahman said cultivation of groundnut has become highly profitable following its increasing demand in the country's boosting food industries.

Groundnut is cultivated three times round the year during the Rabi, Kharif-1 and Kharif-2 seasons on the plain land and char areas bringing self-reliance to thousands of people, especially those living in riverine char areas.

Farmers Aminul Islam and Ummey Kulsum of village Char Taluk Shahbaz and Nur Mohammad of Char Biswa Nath village in Kawnia upazila of Rangpur said they have cultivated groundnut on 1.50 acres of sandy char lands each this season.

"I am harvesting groundnuts now and expecting to get a total production of 45 mounds," he said, and hoped that he would earn a net profit of Tk 1.20 lakh excluding production costs.