Rangpur farmers happy with bumper groundnut yield, fair price
Farmers are earning an average profit of Tk80,000 per acre this season by producing 22 to 28 maunds (each maund is equivalent to 40 kg) of groundnuts, excluding farming costs of around Tk30,000
Farmers in Rangpur are happy with a bumper groundnut yield and lucrative market prices during the ongoing season.
According to sources at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and local markets, farmers are earning an average profit of Tk80,000 per acre this season by producing 22 to 28 maunds (each maund is equivalent to 40 kg) of groundnuts, excluding farming costs of around Tk30,000.
"Farmers are selling their harvested groundnuts to wholesalers at prices ranging from Tk4,000-4,200 per maund to reap better profits," said groundnut trader Mokhlesur Rahman at Rangpur City Bazar.
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Earlier, DAE officials set a target to produce 12,380 tonnes of groundnuts from 5,761 hectares of land in all five districts in the region this season.
"However, farmers finally cultivated groundnut on 5,679 hectares of land, which is only 1.42% less than the target," said Agriculturist Md Shafikul Islam, additional director of the DAE's Rangpur region.
Farmers completed groundnut harvest last week, producing 11,928 tonnes of the crop at an average yield rate of 2.10 tonnes per hectare across the region.
Yasin Ali, a farmer from the village of Char Biswanath in Kawnia upazila of Rangpur, cultivated groundnuts on one acre of sandy char land on the Teesta riverbed this season.
"After completing harvest last month, I got 28 maunds of groundnut and sold the crop at Tk4,100 per maund. I earned a good profit, excluding farming cost," Yasin Ali told BSS.
Farmer Saidul Islam of Char Gorokmandal village in Phulbari upazila, Kurigram, said he cultivated groundnuts on two acres of char land on the Dharla riverbed this season.
"I got a bumper production of 56 maunds of groundnut and earned a net profit of Tk1.50 lakh, excluding all related costs for farming and harvest this time," Saidul Islam said.
During the previous 2023-2024 season, farmers produced 11,628 tonnes of groundnut from 5,512 hectares of land and 11,734 tonnes from 6,301 hectares of land during the 2022-2023 season.
Experts say farmers are consistently getting bumper groundnut yields due to the expanded cultivation of high-yielding varieties developed by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in recent years.
In addition, lower farming costs, good market prices, and strong demand have encouraged char dwellers and other farmers to expand groundnut cultivation for better profits.
"Farmers are expanding groundnut cultivation both in riverine char areas and on the mainland each year due to the increasing demand in the country's growing food industry," agriculturist Shafikul Islam said.
Md. Mamunur Rashid, a PhD fellow at the Department of Agricultural Extension at Haji Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University in Dinajpur, said, "Farmers, especially those in char areas, are expanding groundnut cultivation every year to earn higher profits, improving their livelihoods and standard of living."
