The bumper output of sunflowers in Bagerhat district’s Sharankhola Upazila has put a smile on the faces of the farmers. Sunflower cultivation has been done on four times more land than last year. This has resulted in a bumper crop of sunflowers this year. Farmers in the area are filled with joy as their hard work has finally benefited them grandly. Farmers of this upazila are becoming more interested in healthy sunflower cultivation that is beneficial for the human body and produced with little effort and low cost. They are becoming economically independent by meeting their own needs.
Hasibul Islam Moni and Abul Hasan, Deputy Assistant Agriculture Officers of the Upazila Agriculture Department, said that last year, sunflowers were cultivated in a small area, but this year Hysan-33 varieties of sunflowers were cultivated in thousands of bigha of land. To motivate the farmers with the public representatives, the Upazila Agriculture Directorate has given 22 farmers an exhibition and 1 thousand 220 farmers have been given seeds and fertilizers under the government promotion.
Masum Jamaddar and Ranjan Mridha, farmers of North Tafalbari village, said their sunflower yield was much better than last year. They are becoming economically self-sufficient by selling the rest of the sunflowers to cover their own year's oil demand. Besides, sunflower stems are used as fuel. He said that he wants to cultivate more land next year. Milan Daria, Pulin Bihari, Nurul Islam, Sukaranjan Halder and many others who have farmed in that area expressed same thoughts. Upazila Agriculture Officer Debbrat Sarkar said sunflower seeds contain nilonic acid. Which is very beneficial for human body. Besides, the oil does not contain harmful acid which other oils contain. That is why farmers are increasing interest in healthy oilseed sunflower cultivation. Farmers have cultivated four times more land this year compared to last year due to encouragement from the agriculture department. The yield is bumper this year. The yield is per hectare is 3 metric tonnes. As there is no sunflower oil refining machine in Sharankhola, authorities are in touch with various companies so that the farmers can get the opportunity to refine and sell the oil through them.
