RANGPUR, Aug 3, 2020 (BSS) – The farmers have produced an all-time record quantity of 21,018 tonnes of groundnut during the last Rabi season and just-ended Kharif-1 season this year in Rangpur agriculture region.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said production of 21,018 tonnes of groundnut this year is higher by 1,557 tonnes than production of 19,461 tonnes of the cash crop in both seasons last year in the region.
Talking to BSS, Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Muhammad Ali said a fixed target of producing 11,842 tonnes of groundnut from 5,697 hectares of land was fixed for Rangpur agriculture region for the Rabi season.
“However, the farmers cultivated groundnut on 6,027 hectares of land exceeding the fixed farming target by 729 hectares of land or 5.79 percent during the Rabi season in the region,” Ali said.
Similarly, the DAE had fixed a target of producing 8,173 tonnes of groundnut from 4,652 hectares of land for the region during the just-ended Kharif-1 season.
The farmers, however, cultivated the crop on 4,686 hectares of land and completed harvest on 4,6,15 hectares of land as the current flood damaged standing groundnut on 71 hectares of land during this Kharif-1 season.
“However, farmers produced 13,191 tonnes of groundnut from 6,027 hectares of land during the last Rabi season while 7,827 tonnes of the crop from 4,615 hectares of land during the just-ended Kharif-1 season in the region,” Ali said.
The farmers are getting excellent groundnut yield by cultivating its high yielding varieties evolved by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute in all five districts of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari of the region.
“With increasing demand of groundnut in the boosting food industry sector, farmers are expanding groundnut cultivation on main lands and char areas after getting repeated bumper output with lucrative price in recent years,” Ali said.
Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid said groundnut farming has become a profitable venture following its high demand in the boosting food industry sector across the country.
“A farmer can earn an average profit of Taka 40,000 to Taka 50,000 by producing 26 to 30 mounds of groundnut per acre of land spending Taka 18,000 to Taka 20,000 as farming costs per acre of land,” Rashid said.
He said more than 5,500 farmers, mostly living in char areas or riverside villages, have achieved self-reliance by cultivating groundnut twice annually on sandy char lands with assistance of the DAE and different NGOs improving their living standard.
Groundnut trader Mokhlesur Rahman at Rangpur City Bazar Market said farmers are selling their just-harvested groundnut in the last Kharif-1 season to wholesalers at rates between Taka 3,000 and 3,200 per mound depending on varieties and qualities.
“We are selling groundnut to the retailers at rates between Taka 3,200 and Taka 3,450 per mound after purchasing those from farmers at rural areas and local markets of all five districts in Rangpur agriculture region,” Rahman said.
Talking to BSS, farmers Abul Hashem, Saiduzzaman, Selim Hossain and Abdul Bari of different char villages on the Teesta riverbed in Kawnia upazila of Rangpur said they achieved bumper groundnut output during the just-ended Kharif-1 season.
They termed groundnut farming as highly profitable for lower farming costs.