The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has recovered 10 acres from fallow land that had been encroached on and brought it under sunflower cultivation to expand oil-seed crop production in Tangail.
The DAE, under the supervision of Gopalpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Parvez Mollik, has achieved this inspiring feat in order to uphold Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's instruction of making use of all fallow and unused land in the country and developing the agro-economy.
The ten acres of land in the Bhuarpara area of Tangail's Gopalpur upazila was acquired by the government in 1957 to establish a brick kiln. The land was left abandoned after the kiln was shut down in 1973 due to a failure to make any profit.
Some local influential people gradually started encroaching on the land by using it as a cattle grazing ground and some even built houses there. Some even extracted soil from the land and used it on their property.
This continued for quite some time until the UNO intervened. Parvez Mollik decided to recover the land. Now visitors will only view sunflowers as far as the eye can see and the local community is assisting the UNO in his endeavor.
Abbas Ali, one of the caretakers of the crop field, told Dhaka Tribune that he is making his living from this project. Earlier, he used to work for a day and remain unemployed the next day.
Shamima Akhter, upazila agriculture officer, told Dhaka Tribune that the first seedling was sown on December 22 last year. They used 40 kilograms of sunflower seeds on the entire land and the upazila administration facilitated irrigation for the crop. She said that usually sunflower yield takes 110 days and the oil extracted from the crop is quite useful and reduces risks of heart diseases and cancer.
At the same time, she said that land and weather in Bangladesh are favourable for sunflower cultivation. She said that the authorities had spent Tk2000 on seeds and expect a yield of 10 tons of sunflowers from the field.
She hoped that sunflower cultivation will increase once there is a demand in the local market but for that people must be educated about the benefits of sunflower oil.
UNO Parvez Mollik told Dhaka Tribune that sunflower is a profitable crop and such projects will reduce Bangladesh's dependence on imported edible oil. Tangail Deputy Commissioner Jasim Uddin Haider told Dhaka Tribune that the seeds produced from this field will gradually be sent to other areas of the country for cultivation.