Bananas bring solvency to Lalmonirhat char areas

The remote char (landmass emerging from riverbed) lands in Dharla River basin areas of Lalmonirhat have never been synonymous with vibrant economic activity. For most char residents, life has always been a struggle with options few. Nowadays in twelve shoal areas the future looks brighter however, thanks to success in cultivating the type of banana known locally as the malbhog variety.

“Eight years ago my three acres stood idle,” says Nazrul Islam, 60, from Char Shiberkuti. “Time to time, I farmed sugarcane but it never brought anticipated profits. More recently I saw my neighbour was growing bananas and decided to try. Now I earn around Tk 6 lakh from my three acres every fourteen months.”

“I've been growing bananas on my five acres for the past six years,” says another char resident, Dulal Hossain, 48, from Char Dhamopal. “Each acre can support up to 1,300 healthy banana trees that each produce as many as 150 bananas per annum. We spend around Tk 60 on each tree, earning about Tk 300 from the bananas it produces.”

“We only grow malbhog,” says farmer Surendra Nath Sarker, 65, from Char Gorokmandol, who harvests bananas from his ten acres round-the-year. “This variety is sought after in the local markets so it's no difficulty to sell them. Our living standard has improved a lot since we started growing bananas commercially a few years ago.”

Planting season for bananas occurs twice a year, says another grower, Yakub Ali. “We plant from March to May and then again from September to November. Each banana tree will start to produce fruit approximately fourteen months after planting.”

Banana trader Idris Ali, 45, from Lalmonirhat town says he purchases four green bananas at around Tk 12 from growers, to sell when ripe to retailers, for up to Tk 17. The same bananas are subsequently available to consumers for about Tk 24. “After satisfying local demand we send huge quantities of bananas to the capital and other parts of the country,” he says, adding that nationwide, malbhog bananas are a specialty of the Dharla River char areas.

According to the Lalmonirhat office of the Department Agriculture Extension, at least 2,000 banana orchards of between two and six acres each on average are to be found in the Dharla River basin. “The Dharla River basin is suited to growing the malbhog variety,” says the department's deputy director in Lalmonirhat, Bidubhushon Roy, “while the Teesta River char areas are best suited to other crops, especially maize.”