Commercial cultivation of Sweet Jumbo Grass on the char lands in the Brahmaputra basin has brought success to the extremely poor char people in achieving economic self-reliance in recent years.
Expanded cultivation of the Australian hybrid variety grass has also been helping the backward people of remote char areas in boosting animal husbandry and eradicating abject poverty through enhancing the prospective sector.
A number of NGOs under the Chars Livelihood Programme (CLP), being funded by the UKaid through the Department for International Development, have been assisting the char people in ten northwestern riverine districts in farming the grass since 2008.
Following expanded cultivation of the nutritious grass, milk production has become doubled with easy fattening of cows, incidents of cattle deaths reduced and fodder crisis of cattle heads during the rainy season has been resolved by and large in char areas.
After getting excellent production with lucrative price during the past five consecutive years, the NGOs have launched expanded farming programme of the hybrid variety grass on over 3,500 acres land this season in the poverty-prone char areas. Agriculture and Environment Coordinator Mamunur Rashid of RDRS Bangladesh, one of the implementing organisations of CLP, said farming of the grass has been expanding fast in char areas on the Brahmaputra basin in recent years. The char people have been eradicating abject poverty through selling cattle-heads after fattening, increasing milk production, meeting nutritional demand of malnourished children and fodder crisis following huge production of the grass. Programme Manager (CLP) of RDRS Bangladesh Farzan Ahamed said the growers get the first harvest after one month of sowing seeds and total eight harvests every month from January to August.
“The growers have been earning a net profit of Taka 75,000 on an average annually through cultivation of the grass on one acre char land excluding the production costs of Taka 20,000 after feeding own cows,” he said.
