Farmers are now dreaming of golden returns on the vast sandbars that have emerged along the banks of the Padma River in Natore’s Lalpur. These sandbars, formed from silt deposited by the once-turbulent Padma, are now widely used for peanut cultivation. As far as the eye can see, the sandbar areas are covered with green peanut fields. During this part of the season, local farmers are busy harvesting the crop.
Farmers are profiting from peanut cultivation thanks to low costs, high yields and good market prices. As a result, interest in the crop is steadily growing among people in the sandbar areas.
On-site visits to the Tilokpur, Nimtoli, Gouripur, Char Jajira, Moharkoya, Bilmaria and Nowshara char areas showed peanuts under cultivation across vast stretches of land. In some places, farmers were harvesting peanuts from the field, while others were bringing the plants home to separate the peanuts.
According to the upazila agriculture office, various varieties of peanuts have been cultivated on 465 hectares out of about 3,754 hectares of sandbar land across five agricultural blocks in Ishwardi, Lalpur, Sadar and Bilmaria unions. Notable varieties include BARI Chinabadam-8 and 9, Dhaka Chinabadam-1, and BINA Chinabadam-8. Average yield has been about 2.1 metric tons per hectare.
Ishwardi union farmer Rabi Hossain said he spent about Tk 80,000 cultivating peanuts on five bighas of land. With a good yield, he expects to earn about Tk 130,000 from selling the peanuts if market prices hold.
Another farmer, Abbas Uddin, said that while other crops don’t do as well on the Padma’s sandbars, peanuts thrive there. The crop requires relatively little fertilizer, pesticide or irrigation. Since wholesalers buy directly from the fields, transport costs are also reduced. He said he obtained yields of 13 to 14 maunds per bigha.
Upazila agriculture officer Mehedi Hasan said farmers are being encouraged to cultivate peanuts under a modern agricultural technology extension project. With a good yield this season, cultivation of the crop in this region is expected to expand further next year.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report