Sugarcane cultivation gaining popularity
Friday, 11 September 2009
Our Correspondent
GOPALGANJ, Sept 09: Cultivation of Sugarcane is gaining popularity among the farmers here every year.
A total of 1012 hectares of land has been brought under sugarcane cultivation in five upazilas of Gopalganj district this season. The production target has been fixed at 48,576 metric tons (MT) at a cost of about Tk 75.9 million (7.59 crore), according to official sources.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) cultivation of sugarcane is gradually increasing not only in the mill zone areas, but also in other areas because its farming process makes it more profitable than the other crops like paddy, wheat and jute. So the cultivation of sugarcane on such a massive scale has been taken up in the mill zone areas.
The sugarcanes are supplied to Faridpur Sugar Mills Limited at Madhukhali in greater Faridpur district.
Upazila wise Sugarcane cultivation target is as follows: Gopalganj Sadar Upazila 650 hectares with production target of 31,200 metric tons (MT), Muksudpur Upazila 50 hectares and 2,400 M.T, Kasiani Upazila 294 hectares and 14,112 M.T, Kotalipara Upazila 01 hectares of land and 48 metric tons (M.T.) and Tungipara Upazila 17 hectares and 816 metric tons (M.T).
But due to lack of proper motivational programme, growers in this area usually cultivate local variety of sugarcane. Growers produce 48 metric tons of Sugarcane per hectare on an average. But the production will nearly double if modern technology is introduced here properly.
Bishnupada Moudal (35), a farmer of Naldanga village under Gopalganj Sadar, told our correspondent that farmers would be able to produce more than 60 tonnes of sugarcane per hectare if modern method was applied.
Growers of this area are also deprived of fair prices of their produce as there were no other sugar mill in the district. They are completed to produce molasses during peak sugarcane crushing season. Molasses is being sold here at the price of Tk 22 to 23 per kilogram (kg) which is not reasonable, growers said.
Some growers complained, due to bad communication in the rural areas they were selling to middlemen at lowers prices. So middlemen were taking advantage of the situation.
Some traders said that more than 50 per cent of molasses were transported to the capital city, Chittagong and other parts of the country.
Now a farmer can earn Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 from one hectare of land by investing Tk 20,000. Farmers can increase their profit by cultivating other crops in their sugarcane fields at the first stage of cultivation.
GOPALGANJ, Sept 09: Cultivation of Sugarcane is gaining popularity among the farmers here every year.
A total of 1012 hectares of land has been brought under sugarcane cultivation in five upazilas of Gopalganj district this season. The production target has been fixed at 48,576 metric tons (MT) at a cost of about Tk 75.9 million (7.59 crore), according to official sources.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) cultivation of sugarcane is gradually increasing not only in the mill zone areas, but also in other areas because its farming process makes it more profitable than the other crops like paddy, wheat and jute. So the cultivation of sugarcane on such a massive scale has been taken up in the mill zone areas.
The sugarcanes are supplied to Faridpur Sugar Mills Limited at Madhukhali in greater Faridpur district.
Upazila wise Sugarcane cultivation target is as follows: Gopalganj Sadar Upazila 650 hectares with production target of 31,200 metric tons (MT), Muksudpur Upazila 50 hectares and 2,400 M.T, Kasiani Upazila 294 hectares and 14,112 M.T, Kotalipara Upazila 01 hectares of land and 48 metric tons (M.T.) and Tungipara Upazila 17 hectares and 816 metric tons (M.T).
But due to lack of proper motivational programme, growers in this area usually cultivate local variety of sugarcane. Growers produce 48 metric tons of Sugarcane per hectare on an average. But the production will nearly double if modern technology is introduced here properly.
Bishnupada Moudal (35), a farmer of Naldanga village under Gopalganj Sadar, told our correspondent that farmers would be able to produce more than 60 tonnes of sugarcane per hectare if modern method was applied.
Growers of this area are also deprived of fair prices of their produce as there were no other sugar mill in the district. They are completed to produce molasses during peak sugarcane crushing season. Molasses is being sold here at the price of Tk 22 to 23 per kilogram (kg) which is not reasonable, growers said.
Some growers complained, due to bad communication in the rural areas they were selling to middlemen at lowers prices. So middlemen were taking advantage of the situation.
Some traders said that more than 50 per cent of molasses were transported to the capital city, Chittagong and other parts of the country.
Now a farmer can earn Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 from one hectare of land by investing Tk 20,000. Farmers can increase their profit by cultivating other crops in their sugarcane fields at the first stage of cultivation.