Rangpur landless farmers cultivating crops on dried-up riverbeds

RANGPUR, Jan 30: A good number of extreme poor people especially landless farmers living along river basin are getting financially benefited by cultivating various crops on dried-up river-beds. Char people, small and marginal farmers in greater Rangpur region are becoming financially solvent by growing crops on dried-up river-beds.

Vast tracts of land along the river-beds of the Teesta, Ghaghot, Dharla, Brahmaputra, Kartoa, Atrai, Jamuna and other rivers and low-lying char areas have assumed a captivating greenish look with an excellent growth of Rabi crops in greater Rangpur at present.  

Many river eroded people living on the river basin have started different crops and vegetables cultivation on the both sides of the rivers this year just after removing water from the riverbeds, sources said.

According to Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Rangpur over 70,000 hectares of such lands have been brought under paddy, wheat, maize, mustard, pulses, vegetables, groundnut, tobacco and other crop cultivation this season  in the areas.  

There is no necessity to use chemical fertilisers on the crop field to grow the varieties as the land on the riverbed is very fertile. For this reason the growers used nominal organic fertilisers and invested a small amount of money for it, sources added.

The harvesting of the vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, bean, potato, cucumber, chili, balsam apple and parble has already begun in the char area.

Shafiul Alam (50) of Dharmodas area at Tampat union under Rangpur Sadar Upazila told The Financial Express that he has been cultivating Potato on river beds for the last few years and earning good profit which made him financially solvent. Encouraged by his success many other farmers of his area have begun cultivating different crops on river beds, he added.   

Horticulture Specialist Khandaker Md Mesbahul Islam of DAE said, cultivation on these lands is taking place due to drying up of the rivers and emerging of their beds with hundreds of Chars (shoal)  resulting  huge deposition of silts, he also said.

Being motivated by the field level agriculture officers of DAE, hundreds of farmers started to cultivate paddy, wheat, maize, pulses, pumpkin, oil seeds, potato and other vegetables there and have already become economically solvent, he added.