Rangpur Correspondent :
Pumpkin cultivation on char lands has improved agro-economy in char areas of Rangpur agriculture region bringing fortune to over 42,000 have-nots group landless char families in last ten years.Repeated bumper pumpkin production with lucrative price has changed livelihoods of char people including women of some 300 char villages in the region though they led miserable lives due to abject poverty even a decade ago.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and different NGOs said cultivation of pumpkin began on sandbars in the silted-up beds of different rivers in all five districts of the region since 2009. With assistance of DAE, Practical Action Bangladesh (PAB), RDRS Bangladesh and other NGOs promoted sandbar pumpkin cultivation on silted-up riverbeds to change fortune of thousands of extremely poor char families. Taking to BSS, Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Mamunur Rashid said they extended assistance to over 20,000 poor char families with DAE support for expanding pumpkin cultivation on char lands since 2009.
“The beneficiary char families are sowing pumpkin seed on silted-up beds of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Kartoa and other rivers to harvest the crop from March to May reaping huge profits every year,” Rashid added. Farmers Amena Begum, Mofizul Haque, Fazlul Haque and Ajlema Begum of village of Dakshin Balapara Kutirpar char village under Aditmari upazila in Lalmonirhat narrated their success stories in pumpkin farming on char lands to change their fortune.
Pumpkin cultivation on char lands has improved agro-economy in char areas of Rangpur agriculture region bringing fortune to over 42,000 have-nots group landless char families in last ten years.Repeated bumper pumpkin production with lucrative price has changed livelihoods of char people including women of some 300 char villages in the region though they led miserable lives due to abject poverty even a decade ago.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and different NGOs said cultivation of pumpkin began on sandbars in the silted-up beds of different rivers in all five districts of the region since 2009. With assistance of DAE, Practical Action Bangladesh (PAB), RDRS Bangladesh and other NGOs promoted sandbar pumpkin cultivation on silted-up riverbeds to change fortune of thousands of extremely poor char families. Taking to BSS, Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Mamunur Rashid said they extended assistance to over 20,000 poor char families with DAE support for expanding pumpkin cultivation on char lands since 2009.
“The beneficiary char families are sowing pumpkin seed on silted-up beds of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Kartoa and other rivers to harvest the crop from March to May reaping huge profits every year,” Rashid added. Farmers Amena Begum, Mofizul Haque, Fazlul Haque and Ajlema Begum of village of Dakshin Balapara Kutirpar char village under Aditmari upazila in Lalmonirhat narrated their success stories in pumpkin farming on char lands to change their fortune.
