Farmers in Madaripur are losing interest in growing betel for lack of financial assistance and not getting fair prices.
Nearly 5,000 families of the district’s betel growers are in financial hardship. Many betel farmers have switched to another crop and even changed their profession.
Increased prices of required materials has also caused farmers to stop growing betel in Madaripur, where it used to be widely grown in the seventies.
There were vast tracts of betel fields in Kalkini and Shibchar, and production was satisfactory till the eighties.
But from 1991 to 1996, production was low and fell significantly during the 1998 flood.
The farmers strove to start afresh the following year but could not make much stride because of the spiralling costs of production materials that went up by around 200 times in the last four decades.
They also had to endure a range of adversities, including the 2007 Cyclone Sidr, that made it difficult for them to even survive.
Many farmers who would grow betel in Shibchar now produce turmeric, eggplant, chilli, white radish, tomato, rice, jute and some other crops.
Erfan Khan, who had a four-bigha betel field in Kalkini, said betel farmers get no support from the government.
“Betel is a lucrative produce but its production also involves many challenges,” he observed.
Quader and Majibur grow betel in Shibchar, and they said providing loans for a long term that come with low interests could make farmers interested in growing betel again.
“Betel farming is of course lucrative, which has convinced many farmers to stick to this crop despite a whole lot of challenges. Providing them with loans can now be a way to increase production again,” said Quader.
Abdur Razzak, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Madaripur, said betel farming in the district is not as popular as it used to be.
“Betel is now grown in a number of areas in Kalkini and Shibchar. Farmers here are facing losses as betel coming from other districts is cheap but we will consider ways to assist them in the future,” he added.
