Kurigram catkin growers all smiles
Bumper yield of catkin, locally called kashia, this season has brought smiles to many farmers in Kurigram's Chilmari upazila as they are earning a handsome profit by selling the produce at good prices due to its high demand.
During a visit to Jorgachh Haat in the upazila, this correspondent saw farmer Nafer Uddin, 58, of Brahmaputra river basin Char Astomi was selling catkin with a big smile on his face.
"Although all my three bighas of char land were blooming with catkin a couple of weeks ago, recently one bigha of out of the three bighas land went into the womb of Brahmaputra river," Nafer said.
Nafer said he got 7,000 bundles of catkin from the rest two bighas of land this season and got Tk 35,000 by selling each bundle of catkin at Tk 5.
They do not cultivate or invest any money for producing the item as it is grown on char lands naturally, he said, adding that he spent only Tk 10,000 as labourer cost for transporting the harvest to the mainland.
Farmer Delwar Hossain of Char Kodalkati village said, earlier, there was a high demand for catkin as most of the houses in the locality were made with straw.
Its demand has fallen a bit as now there is no straw-made house in the area, he added.
Delwar said this year he got 13,000 bundles of catkin from his four bighas of char land and sold the produce for Tk 68,000.
Julhas Mia, a catkin trader at Jorgachh Haat, said they purchase catkin from the farmers in Brahmaputra river basin area and sell those to betel leaf growers in Barishal, Rajshahi, Kushtia, Barguna, Jhalakathi and many other areas across the country.
They buy each bundle of catkin at Tk 5 to Tk 6 and sell it at Tk 10 to Tk 12 to the buyers, he said.
Chilmari Upazila Agriculture Officer Kumar Pranay Bisan Das said catkin is grown on sandy char lands in between June to October and harvested from the middle of January to end of February.
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