Cardamom being cultivated commercially in Benapole

Commercial cultivation of cardamom has begun in Benapole stirring
interests of many even at the research level.
One Shahjahan Ali, an amateur farmer, first planted cardamom and later
went for the commercial farming of the costly aromatic spice.
Though he started cultivation of cardamom two years ago, each of his
plants has just started giving yield.
He was first to have started commercial farming of the spice in the country.
Shahjahan Ali’s trailblazing commercial farming of cardamom has drawn
attention of many—from local ordinary people to even agricultural
researchers.
A group of scientists of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute
visited his cardamom farm. They have collected samples from the farm
for their research work.
Shajahan has already started harvesting cardamom from the garden and
selling it in the local markets.
After collecting information, he started planting cardamom on 1.5
bighas of land bringing its roots from India in 2011.
Flowers were seen in the plants in May and harvesting of the crop is
now going on.
The look of the locally produced spice resembles that of the imported
one. The smell is also exactly same.
Shahjahan said after collecting cardamom seeds from the plants, they
are to be dried in the sun for 8-10 days. And then the spice can be
sold in market.
Debashish Kumar Das, acting agriculture officer of Sharsha upazila,
said Shajahan has pioneered commercial farming of the costly spice in
the country.
Shahjahan’s success would further help Bangladesh have economic gain
substantially, he added.
Dr Kalim Uddin, chief scientific officer of Spice Research Centre,
Bogra said that scientists continued research on production of
cardamom in the country.
The country’s atmosphere is favourable for producing such spices, he added.

Leave a Reply