Coffee, cashew cultivation expands under DAE project
Coffee and cashew cultivation are rapidly expanding in Bangladesh thanks to a government initiative that aims to meet the growing domestic demand for these two crops.
The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is the lead implementing agency of the Tk 211 crore project, called "Research, Development and Extension of Cashew and Coffee", while the Bangladesh Agricultural Research institute is acting as co-agent.
According to the project authority, they have helped increase coffee and cashew cultivation by 800 hectares and 1,200 hectares of land across 19 districts respectively since May last year.
Previously, coffee was grown on just 122 hectares of land while cashew cultivation took up 2,065 hectares of land across the country.
Of the newly cultivated lands, hilly areas like the Chittagong Hill Tracts contributed 80 per cent while the remainder are plain lands in various districts, such as Tangail, Mymensingh, Sylhet and Dinajpur.
Project Director Shahidul Islam said they aim to further increase the land usage for coffee cultivation by 2,000 hectares and cashew cultivation by 3,000 to 4,000 hectares.
According to the DAE, the yearly domestic demand for coffee is nearly 1,200 tonnes worth Tk 600 crore.
Farmers under this project, which was initiated by Agriculture Minister Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, are expected harvest nearly 4,000 tonnes of coffee beans, which will provide 1,000 tonnes of coffee, within the next two or three years. At present, only a few farmers produce just 60 to 70 tonnes of coffee annually.
Similarly, the domestic market for cashews, which is mostly import-oriented, is worth around Tk 400-450 crore.
Besides, there are about 16 or 20 large and medium sized cashew processing industries in Bangladesh that require roughly 20-25 thousand tonnes of raw cashews each year.
"The factory owners now depend on imports but local farmers will be able to meet their demands within the next 5 to 10 years," the project director said.
"Currently, our farmers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts produce only 1,600-2,000 tonnes of cashew, which is nothing compared to our national demand," Islam added.
He went on to say that the new coffee and cashew farms under the project are being set up mainly on abandoned lands.
Each hectare of land producers about 2 to 2.5 tonnes of coffee, which can be sold at a current market price of around Tk 350 to Tk 400 per kilogramme (kg).
"Our government aims to create a $1 billion export market for coffee and cashews from Bangladesh," Islam said.
"We are providing farmers with the best variety of coffee plants -- Robusta and Arabica -- which are highly demanded in international markets," he added.
Sanowar Hossain, a farmer in Tangail's Madhupur area, has been growing coffee on his 1.5 bigha land since 2019.
He collected about 70-80 kgs of processed coffee which sold for between Tk 1,200 and Tk 2,000 per kg in local markets last year.
"I collected these plants with help of the local DAE office under its Year-round Fruit Production for Nutrition Improvement project," Hossain said, adding that he will set up new farms if he gets land in hilly areas.
Lal Duh Sang Bawm, a coffee farmer of Bastlang Para under Bandarban's Ruma upazila, has been cultivating coffee on his 15 acres of hilly land since 2008.
Bawm had sown around 6,000 to 7,000 coffee plants that year but two thirds of his crop has since died as he recently applied the wrong pesticides.
"I got nearly 4-5 maunds of coffee from this land previously and used to sell the beans for Tk 350 to Tk 440 per kg. DAE officials recently provided me over 1,000 new plants of Robusta and Arabica, which I planted last October," he said.
"Coffee is a mostly profitable crop as you do need any new land for it. We grow coffee alongside mango and get extra income from coffee as it has high demand," Bawm added.
Manyang, a farmer of Ranglay Para under Bandarban sadar upazila, has been cultivating coffee on his three acres of land since 2016. He got 130 kgs of coffee beans last year and sold it for Tk 300 per kg.
"I cultivate coffee as a companion crop in my mango and jackfruit orchards. The main problem is irrigation as coffee plants need water but we have a scarcity in hilly areas," he said, adding that he too got some new plants from the project.
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