Kashphul (common reed) is now not only an eye-catching flower, it has a potential for its financial importance as cash crop to the farmers at Kaliganj upapzila in Jhenidah.
The farmers have been showing their eagerness as the flower ensures double profit than paddy, wheat, jute or other crops, said the farmers.
When this correspondent visited some villages at the upapzila, he found that kashphul is being cultivated on commercial basis at villages Paikpara, Niamatpur, Baropakhia and surrounding villages.
Farmers Abdul Haq of Niamatpur, Sakhawat Hossain of Paikpara and Anwar Hossain of Baropakhia said kashphul was growing on the fallow lands for decades together which only meeting the beauty aspect of the viewers in the autumn. Sometimes the dried plants were used as fuel for the ultra-poor villagers in their ovens.
However, the same is gaining popularity as a material for making shades in the betel leaf orchards. A few years back some of the betel leaf orchard owners were purchasing the kashphul at a nominal price, while the farmers have been selling the same at a good price.
A farmer can receive an amount of Taka 60 thousand in a year, while the same plot could hardly ensure Taka 40 thousand. Further, the kashphul does not require any weeding, irrigation and maintenance cost round the year.
The farmers said they were in trouble as the land where the kashphul was growing, hampering the growth of any crop due to deep-routed roots of the same. Demand of the same turned as blessings for the farmers due to increasing demand of the kashphul in the betel leaf orchards within last few years, they said.
Anil Das and some betel leaf orchard owners when contacted said the when the price of materials used in the orchards were increasing day by day. They witnessed that the price of the kashphul was comparatively least. Considering the price, they started using the same in their orchards to reduce production cost, they said.
Upazila agriculture officer Jahidul Karim said he was thundered and pleased when he witnessed that the farmers were reaping better from the ever neglected and weedy plant kashphul. Invention of the flower for using in the betel leaf orchard was the invention of the farmers themselves, not by any scientists, UAO said.
