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RAJSHAHI, July 25: Ginger farming in sacks is gaining popularity in Rajshahi as it is cultivated in the shaded areas of fallow land inside mango orchards.
Higher price of the produce is also gradually encouraging the people to cultivate it.
Last year, for the first time, a farmer started cultivating ginger in his homestead on a small scale and he got good yield and high price.
Seeing his success, this year Ashiq Uzzaman and Mejbaul Hasan, farmers of Biraldah area of Baneshwar union of Puthia upazila of Rajshahi, have started cultivating ginger.
Ginger farming in sacks is a new idea. In the method, the sacks are to be filled with moderate amount of soil mixed with organic manure, seeds of ginger are planted in it and good yield is expected in cultivation.
Saplings of ginger are planted during the period from the end of Bangla month Chaitra and at the beginning of Baishakh and it takes six months to bear fruits.
In this way, the two farmers planted ginger two or three samplings in about 3,000 sacks with soil mixed with organic manure in the shaded area in the orchard's abandoned land.
According to the Agricultural Extension Department, as there are many mango orchards in Barendra region, ginger cultivation in the way will meet the demand of the country to some extent.
The two motivated farmers said as no crop is grown in the shaded land, they have experimentally planted ginger saplings in about 3000 sacks in one and a half bigha land of the garden at a cost of Tk 80,000 and they expect to earn Tk 0.5 million from the endeavour.
They also said garden owners from different areas are coming to take advice on the method of ginger cultivation in sacks.
Nazrul Islam and Tariqul Islam, owners of mango orchards who came to see ginger cultivation , said many people leave the land uncultivated as ploughing it is very difficult in the mango orchards . "However, I have heard that the cost is much less because ginger as seeds is planted in sacks without cultivation on that abandoned land.
They also said as there is a demand for ginger in the market, the price is also high. Therefore, all the garden owners will get double benefit if the abandoned land of the garden can be cultivated properly.
KH M Jamal Uddin, assistant officer of the upazila agricultural extension department, said in the upazila there are mango orchards on about 900 hectares of land. As mango orchards are generally on high ground, it causes no water-logging. As a result, there is no possibility of damaging the produce and garden owners can get additional profit to cultivate the spice.