Maize does magic in rural Bhola

Amazing maize promises good days for landless sharecropper Kamal Hossain and his family. The photo was taken during harvest at Kachia village in Bhola. PHOTO: STAR

This has been possible due to the technical support of the Agriculture Extension Department (AED) and the Agricultural Research Institute (ARC) in Barisal, maize farmer Abdul Khaleque of Kachia union in Bhola Sadar told this correspondent on Friday.

Abdul Khaleque, 45, earned about Tk 50,000 by cultivating maize on two acres of hired land this year.

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He said they were first encouraged to cultivate maize by the AED Block Supervisor three years back.

In two seasons, about 30 destitute families of this area cultivated maize on 60 acres of land and earned good profits.

In the current season, the ARC at Rahmatpur in Barisal organised a training on maize cultivation for 64 destitute families of Bhola.

The trainees included 24 families from Bhola Sadar, 24 from Borhanuddin and 16 from Lalmohon upazilas. Both males and females took part in the training.

After training, they started maize cultivation in their respective areas.

"People had laughed at us initially", Abdul Khaleque said.

"But when we harvested bumper crops and earned profit more than that from rice and other crops, many of them showed interest to cultivate maize", said another landless farmer Alamgir.

Kamal Hossain, 30, is known as a successful maize farmer in the area. He has been growing the crop for the last four years. By this time, once landless and unemployed Kamal now owns two acres of land and built a new tin-shed house, all with the profit from maize. Kamal said he is now happy and his three children are going to school.

Procurement of good seed is their main problem, they said. Khaleque said he collected seed from Dhaka as good quality seed is not available here.

They said many interested farmers could not cultivate maize due to nonavailability of the seed.

They have urged the local agriculture officials for supply of good seeds.

When contacted, Bhola AED Deputy Director Abdus Satter said maize cultivation has a bright prospect in Bhola if good seed can be supplied in time and marketing of the product can be ensured.

Seed trader Shajahan Ali during a training on maize cultivation told the farmers that he would try to ensure supply of good seeds and purchase the product.