PHOTO: Mintu Deshwara

Cassava shrubs are being grown amidst other plants and trees on fallow land in Sylhet division, bringing utility through the harvest of its roots, the starch from which is used in making food, garments and medicine. Pran-RFL Group buys the roots offering contractual farming, lowering the risk of losses for producers. The photo was taken in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar recently.

Mintu Deshwara

Farmers who cultivate cassava on fallow land in Sylhet division are in for a huge success this year with expectations of a bumper yield and good market prices.

The rugged vegetable has a relatively long growth cycle compared to other important crops, taking an average of eight to 10 months.

The weather has been favourable and harvests are due to begin within a couple of days and run till March, according to various farmers.

The roots can be consumed directly or fed to livestock. It can be processed into granulated flour, or high quality cassava flour, a substitute for some of the wheat flour in bread and confectionary, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In Thailand and China, root starch goes into food products, plywood, paper and textiles, and is used as feedstock for production of sweeteners, fructose, alcohol and fuel ethanol. Two recent cassava mutations have starch properties that are highly valued by industry.

The root is not the only useful part of the plant – young cassava leaves make a nutritious vegetable, and plant tops can be fed to cattle, buffaloes, pigs, chickens and silkworms.

With the use of suitable cassava varieties and modern equipment having the highest production efficiency, the industrial yield of starch extraction exceeds 24 per cent, according to the FAO.

Bangladesh’s garments, pharmaceuticals and food processing industries annually require about 3.5 lakh tonnes of starch extracted from the root crop, according to officials of the local Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and Pran-RFL Group.

The demand is growing by about 10 per cent every year.

Around 7,000 tonnes to 8,000 tonnes of cassava starch are manufactured locally while the rest of the demand is met through imports from Thailand, India, Vietnam and other countries.

Farmers cultivated the nutty-flavoured vegetable on 630 acres of land in Sylhet this season and the production target is around 3,000 tonnes this year. It was on 480 acres last year, yielding 1,400 tonnes.

“We are not tense about selling our crops as Pran buys most of it under contract farming,” farmer Polit Bhar told this correspondent during a visit to Kulaura upazila in Sylhet’s Moulvibazar district.

Bhar went on to say that this year he planted around 8,500 cassava plants on five bighas of land. Each shrub produces about 10 kilogrammes (kg) to 15 kg of the tuber, which is then purchased by Pran for about Tk 7 to Tk 8 per kg.

When cultivating other crops, farmers have to source the capital along with bearing the risk of being unable to market and sell their produce.