Mintu Abdur Rahman, Rangpur :
Storage of potato at natural store has got popularity among the small and marginal farmer in Rangpur division.
Bangladesh Agricultural Marketing Department has extended technical and logistic support to the farmers at 40 upazilas in northern region in developing this type of cold stores.
Project Director of Agricultural Marketing Department of Rangpur region Anwarul Hoque said this kind of storage is echo friendly.
He said, “It is very easy to build this kind of store. It is a hut with corrugated sheet roof.”
It needs about one lack taka to build the hut with bamboo platform, 3 feet high from the ground, he added saying, “About 30 mt of potato can be stored in the store.”
Visiting Mirganj under Rangpur Sadar upazila this correspondent came to know that farmers can store potato for four months at the store.
Abul Hossen, a farmer of the area said, earlier he had to sell potato in the fields immediately after harvest. Because, cold store fare was beyond their capacity, he added.
The storage at this hut costs minimum money and thus the farmers can save huge money asked, Anwarul Hoque said famers needed one lac taka to store 30 mt of potato in the cold store whereas they needed no money for storing potato at the huts.
The PD said, the department wanted that observing prospect of the pilot project, the farmers get inspired to build such store themselves. Meanwhile, a few farmers have come forward and built such stores themselves.
Crop harvest begins on Rangpur riverbeds: The landless people, small and marginal farmers have already started harvesting their crops cultivated on the dried up riverbeds, chars, shoals, beels, haors and low lying lands in Rangpur agriculture region.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and NGO sources, the farmers are getting excellent yield of different crops from the char lands and dried up beds of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla and Ghaghot and other rivers and tributaries.
The farmers have already completed harvesting mustard, wheat and pumpkin cultivated on these lands when harvest of the other crops will get momentum soon to complete before the upcoming rainy season.
The poor and landless char and riverside people, small and marginal farmers have brought over 55,000 hectares of char lands under cultivation of various crops in all five districts under Rangpur agriculture region this season. They have mostly cultivated Boro paddy, vegetables, pumpkin, onion, garlic, maize, wheat, groundnut, ‘china’, ‘kawn’, pulses, ‘gunji till’, tobacco, gourd, corn, pulses, mustard, other oil seeds, and watermelon on these lands this year like in the past.
Talking to BSS, horticulture specialist of the DAE Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam said many people cultivated various crops on the dried up riverbeds and low-lying char lands in the river basins this season to improve their livelihoods.
Char dwellers Abdul Hye and Akbar Ali of village Char Montola, Abdul Kuddus and Kamal Hossain of Korai Barisal, Salimullah of Char Gaynar Patal on the Brahmaputra in Chilmari upazila said they were getting excellent crop yield this year.
Storage of potato at natural store has got popularity among the small and marginal farmer in Rangpur division.
Bangladesh Agricultural Marketing Department has extended technical and logistic support to the farmers at 40 upazilas in northern region in developing this type of cold stores.
Project Director of Agricultural Marketing Department of Rangpur region Anwarul Hoque said this kind of storage is echo friendly.
He said, “It is very easy to build this kind of store. It is a hut with corrugated sheet roof.”
It needs about one lack taka to build the hut with bamboo platform, 3 feet high from the ground, he added saying, “About 30 mt of potato can be stored in the store.”
Visiting Mirganj under Rangpur Sadar upazila this correspondent came to know that farmers can store potato for four months at the store.
Abul Hossen, a farmer of the area said, earlier he had to sell potato in the fields immediately after harvest. Because, cold store fare was beyond their capacity, he added.
The storage at this hut costs minimum money and thus the farmers can save huge money asked, Anwarul Hoque said famers needed one lac taka to store 30 mt of potato in the cold store whereas they needed no money for storing potato at the huts.
The PD said, the department wanted that observing prospect of the pilot project, the farmers get inspired to build such store themselves. Meanwhile, a few farmers have come forward and built such stores themselves.
Crop harvest begins on Rangpur riverbeds: The landless people, small and marginal farmers have already started harvesting their crops cultivated on the dried up riverbeds, chars, shoals, beels, haors and low lying lands in Rangpur agriculture region.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and NGO sources, the farmers are getting excellent yield of different crops from the char lands and dried up beds of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla and Ghaghot and other rivers and tributaries.
The farmers have already completed harvesting mustard, wheat and pumpkin cultivated on these lands when harvest of the other crops will get momentum soon to complete before the upcoming rainy season.
The poor and landless char and riverside people, small and marginal farmers have brought over 55,000 hectares of char lands under cultivation of various crops in all five districts under Rangpur agriculture region this season. They have mostly cultivated Boro paddy, vegetables, pumpkin, onion, garlic, maize, wheat, groundnut, ‘china’, ‘kawn’, pulses, ‘gunji till’, tobacco, gourd, corn, pulses, mustard, other oil seeds, and watermelon on these lands this year like in the past.
Talking to BSS, horticulture specialist of the DAE Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam said many people cultivated various crops on the dried up riverbeds and low-lying char lands in the river basins this season to improve their livelihoods.
Char dwellers Abdul Hye and Akbar Ali of village Char Montola, Abdul Kuddus and Kamal Hossain of Korai Barisal, Salimullah of Char Gaynar Patal on the Brahmaputra in Chilmari upazila said they were getting excellent crop yield this year.
