Grass cultivation makes ten thousand families self-reliant
More than 10,000 extremely poor families have become self-reliant through commercial cultivation of sweet jumbo grass in sandy char areas of the Brahmaputra basin in the past few years.
Expanded cultivation of the Australian hybrid variety grass has also been helping the char people boost animal husbandry and eradicate abject poverty to lead a better life.
They have achieved success with assistance of Chars Livelihood Programme (CLP), funded by UK Aid through DFID. The programme has been helping char people in ten north-western districts since 2008.
Expanded cultivation of the grass has led to better milk production due to fatter cattle, fewer deaths of cattle and less fodder crisis during the rainy season.
After the successful grass cultivation, a number of local NGOs have launched expanded farming programmes of the grass on over 8,000 acres of land with assistance of CLP.
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 in recent years.
Following successful grass production, the char people have been meeting demands of malnourished children and eradicating abject poverty through selling cattle-heads.
Besides, owners of the bigger dairy farms of Bogra and other areas in the northern districts have been purchasing the nutritious grass at better rates to feed their cattle.
Senior Agriculture Officer of RDRS Bangladesh Anup Kumar Ghosh said the grass growers get the first harvest after one month of sowing seeds and get a total of eight harvests every month from January to August.
"The growers have been earning a net profit of 80,000 taka on an average annually through cultivation of the grass on one acre char land excluding the production cost of 20,000 taka after feeding their cattle," he said.
Farmers Shahjahan of Bozra Diarkhata village, Faridul Islam and Abdul Baten of Jadur Char village, and Mintu Mian of Nalita Khata village said they sowed the seeds on their 20 to 30 decimals of land this time some four months ago.
"We are meeting the total fodder demand of our 22 to 30 cows and we have sold the produced grass between 20,000 taka and 30,000 taka in three harvests so far and received expected profits, and there will be five more harvests," they said.
Farmer Wahed Ali of Kachir Char in Sadar upazila of Kurigram told the news agency that he has cultivated the grass in one-acre land this time and already sold the produced grass at Tk 55,000 so far after feeding 20 cows.