Farmers have continued rotting their jute plants in all rivers and
water bodies in the district causing pollution of water as ribbon
retting method, a technology for rotting jute plants with less water
to get quality fibre, is yet to gain popularity in the region.
According to Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) official
sources, ribbon retting is a method to separate fibre from jute stick
and rot those in ditch to get the expected golden fibre.
By using this technology the separated fibre are kept under water of
ditch to decompose those properly. The size of a ditch should be six
metre in length, two metre in breadth and one metre in depth where
fibers are kept under water for at least 12 to 15 days.
This year the DAE took an initiative to reintroduce the system but
scanty training and lack of response from farmers, resulted its
failure again. “We are not acquainted with the system, some farmers
were informed about the new system but they did not show much
interest”, Rashid a jute farmer of Nazirdah village under Kounia
upazila said. Bakkar Ali, another jute farmer of Talimganj village
under Mithapukur upazila said that ribbon retting method is very easy
but they took training on it only for a day which is not adequate, he
added.
Deputy director of DAE Rangpur, Golam Sobhani said “We are trying to
make the technology popular among the farmers by providing necessary
training, equipments and other facilities. It may take time to adopt
the technology by each and every farmer, he added. – Our Correspondent
