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7/25/2009 7:45 PM

The Daily Star - Details News

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=98498 7/25/2009 7:46:19 PM

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Kachur lati earns forex

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15,000 farmers cultivating it in Joypurhat

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A youth piles up bundles of kachur lati, now an exportable, at Bottoli wholesale market at Panchbibi upazila in Joypurhat.Photo: STAR

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Hasibur Rahman Bilu, back from Joypurhat Comment Policy Farmers in Joypurhat earn well from kachur lati as the produce is now being exported to several countries including the UK and the US. Pleased to see a news on exportable new item from my country. I have found this in Australian market. Hope govt. as well as corporate initiative to enhance better export promotion with expanded cultivation. Bangladesh being an agrarian country, it can easily see foreign currency from cultivation with cheaper available labor.

More than 15,000 people have been growing kachur lati (taro shoots) in Joypurhat Sadar and Panchbibi upazilas for the last six years, said Hashanur Rahman, acting deputy director at the Department of Agriculture Extension in Joypurhat. They cultivate the crop on 750 hectares of land and sell that at the Bottoli wholesale market in Panchbibi, he continued. “It takes around Tk 75,000 to grow kachur lati on a hectare of land. And the yield fetches on average Tk 3.50 lakh.”

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Ranajit Kumar Bairagi

Around 28 wholesalers buy at least 100 metric tons of kachur lati from the local market every day for export to the UK, US, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Malaysia and Kuwait.

Associate Prof Khulna University

The crop was first exported to Saudi Arabia in 2004. But there has been no initiative yet to help farmers improve production and realise full export potential, said sources at the agriculture department.

Now in Melbourne Australia

Talking to The Daily Star, the stand-in deputy director observed that a research centre should be set up here to ensure standard of the yield and measures taken to educate the farmers about proper application of fertiliser.

: Ranajit Kumar Bairagi

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The produce sells at Tk 18 to Tk 20 a kg on wholesale market, local sources said. Usually, farmers can sell kachur lati over four months of the year--May to August, DAE officials said. Abdus Sobhan of Shitlaimatul village under Panchbibi upazila said growing kachur lati is more profitable than other crops. “I made a profit of Tk 50,000 from kachur lati on a 33-decimal land last year, whereas I earned only Tk 5,000 growing rice on the same land,” said Sobhan. Abdur Rahim, a wholesaler in Panchbibi, said that for the last two years he has been in the business of buying kachur lati from local farmers and selling those to exporters because of handsome profit it nets.

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7/25/2009 7:45 PM

The Daily Star - Details News

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=98498 7/25/2009 7:46:19 PM

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