The superbly growing tender plants of winter crops have given a greenish look to char lands and dried-up riverbeds in the riverine areas of Rangpur agriculture region.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said people are expected to bring around one-lakh hectares of char lands under crop farming during this Rabi season in all five districts of the region.
The riverside and char people are continuing to sow crop seeds on char lands and dried up riverbeds following the appearance of shoals with massive deposition of silts and alluvial soils on the riverbeds.
Farmers have almost completed sowing seeds of mustard, watermelon, onions, garlic, chili, pulses, potatoes and other vegetables though the process continues for other crops like maize, wheat, gourd, Boro rice, groundnut, tobacco and pumpkin on these lands.
Read more: Train crushes student in Rajshahi
Additional Director of the DAE's Rangpur region Agriculturist Md. Tauhidul Ikbal said people are expanding cultivation of crops on char lands after getting repeated bumper output and lucrative prices in recent times.
Tender plants of the early varieties of winter crops are growing superbly on char lands, shoals and silted- up beds of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Ghaghot, Jamuna, Kartoa and other rivers in the region.
“Char people are cultivating various crops mostly adopting intercropping methods this time aiming at completing a bumper harvest before commencement of the next rainy season,” Ikbal said.
Talking to BSS, Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid said crop cultivation on char lands and silted-up riverbeds is expanding, mostly adopting intercropping methods.
Some 35,000 char households, who are beneficiaries of different NGOs and government organisations, are cultivating pumpkins with other vegetables and crops in over 250 char villages of all five districts in the region this season.
More than 23,000 char families have already achieved self-reliance through farming crops on char lands with GO-NGO assistance changing their living standard in the last 13 years in the region.
People living in char villages of Gannarpar, Buridangi, Singhimari, Miazipara, Motukpur, Kolkond, Bagdohra and Nohali, Chhalapak in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur are busy now in cultivating various crops and taking care of those on char lands.
“They will start harvesting crops from early January to end the process before the commencement of the rainy season,” Rashid added.
Talking to BSS, riverside and char people expressed happiness over the excellent growth of tender plants of their cultivated crops on the dried-up riverbeds and char lands.
Farmers Nur Hossain, Mahbub Alam and Abdur Razzaque of Char Paschim Mohipur village in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur said they have achieved self-reliance through cultivating crops on char lands and dried-up riverbeds over the years.
They said people of char areas are cultivating pumpkin, onion, garlic, vegetables, chili, squash, potato, brinjal, sweet potato, banana and other crops on char lands to earn more profits this season.
