DHAKA, Dec 01, 2020 (BSS)-Banana cultivation holds a great promise for accelerating income of many divorcee women as well farmers as it provides three to four time more profit than many other crops cultivation.
Mowmita Dey is a case of success who has changed her destiny by undertaking banana cultivation. Realizing the importance of banana cultivation, Mowmita diverted her meagre resource to this fruit production that gave her financial solvency.
Deep crisis gripped her after she divorced her husband one year ago. Her husband was a drug addict and he used to spend almost all money for drug addiction, leaving his entire family into a financial crisis. As his drug addiction went beyond tolerable limit, family dispute became an everyday affair.
One day Mowmita decided to divorce her husband. After divorce, she was beset with a host of problems in running her family with three children.
She used to live in Chilahati village of Debijanj upazila in Panchagar district. After separation from her husband, she took some loan from a local NGO and started banana cultivation on her abandoned land.
After only one year, banana cultivation has brought smiles on her face. She earned Taka 30,000 by selling banana.
Mowmita said it was very difficult to run the family without any income. “I had no income source. My husband was a drug addict. His contribution was very poor to my family. Even, I was unable to educate my children. Finally, I decided to divorce my husband. But, I fell into a deep crisis. My brother helped me a lot after the mishap,”she added.
She said, “I took it as a challenge. I took some loan from an NGO and started banana cultivation. After a lapse of one year, I earned Taka 30,000. This year, I’ve a plan to cultivate banana on more land.”
Like Mowmita, a large number of farmers specially women at Sonaher and Chilahati villages under Debiganj upazila of the district this year have brought smiles on the faces of their struggling family members through cultivation of banana.
The farmers of different villages of the district are now keen to develop banana orchards instead of cultivating jute and paddy.
Another woman of the same village- Jaheda said, banana cultivation is profitable and bears less production cost and harvesting is possible within 11 months of planting saplings.
Four hundred banana saplings need one bigha of land (33 decimal), she added.
“I have cultivated banana on two acres of land spending Taka 60,000 and got Taka 1.5 lakh by selling bananas after meeting all expenditures,” she said.
Since banana harvesting started, traders from Dhaka, Khulna and other parts of the country are swamping to this region and after buying banana from the orchards they send those to Dhaka and other districts of the country.
Deputy Director, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) of Panchagarh, Mohammad Abu Hanif said with better yield and high profits with less investment the farmers now get encouraged and inclined to have more cultivation of banana.
“The land of Panchagarh is the best for banana cultivation as the land is high in comparison to other regions”, Abu Hanif added.
He said, around 3,200 acres of land have been brought under banana cultivation in the district this season and side by side, the farmers have farmed other crops as Brinjal and red-amaranth in the banana orchards which led the farmers to make additional income, he said.