Retired cop all smiles on bamboo farming

A retired police official, who has been cultivating long and thick bamboos of Muli variety, widely known as Makhla Bash, at his homestead in Kurigram town for the last ten years, has a desire to spread the cultivation among local people.

Former Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rezaul Karim, 70, son of late Panir Uddin Ahmed of Kaley village in Sadar upazila, collected three bamboo plants while he was serving as officer-in-charge (OC) of Panchagarh's Boda Police Station in 2003 and planted those at his Kurigram house premises.

The length of each bamboo is 80 feet to 90 feet and its circumference is up to two feet and six inches while the length of other local varieties is 45 feet to 60 feet and their circumference is up to 12 inches, Razaul said.

Rezaul said, “One of my former higher officials in Panchagarh asked me to collect the bamboo variety from a farmer at Sharial village in Tentulia upazila in 2002.”

“After my retirement from government service in 2007, when I returned home I found that two of the three plants had died,” he said, adding that he then started to take care of the only plant alive and was able to grow three new plants from the tree the same year.

From then, new plants started growing every year and it has turned into a large bamboo cluster now, Rezaul said.

“During nursing of the plants at the beginning I noticed that the new plants taste sweet and are vulnerable to ant attack,” he said, adding that he informed two agriculture officials of the matter, who suggested him to spray pesticides on the affected plants and it worked.

He use the bamboos for various household purposes and often gives some of those to his poor neighbours, he said, adding that he sold 20 bamboos at Tk 400 each this year.

Moreover, Rezaul also gave a few bamboo plants to two of his relatives who planted those as per his instruction. 

Farmer Abdul Latif, 38, of Shibram village, said he bought 14 bamboos from Rezaul's cluster and the trees are more sustainable than the local variety.

Kurigram Sadar Upazila Agriculture Officer Sasty Chandra Roy said the long and thick bamboo of Muli variety is usually found in Panchagarh and Thakurgaon.

Compared to the other local varieties, Muli variety is good in quality and its cultivation should spread among other farmers, he said.