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Are aquatic plants worthless? Not really!
KM HABIBUR RAHMAN, Pirojpur
Different types of aquatic plants and weeds are often seen growing in water along the edges of paddy fields.
These plants compete with paddy saplings for nutrients from the soil and may cause reduction in rice production unless extracted from the croplands.
As such, these plants are usually cleared up by farmers during paddy cultivation, and deemed worthless.
But not anymore. Why?
This may come as a surprise to some, but innovative approach to agricultural practices has paved way for even these plants to generate value.
With hundreds of canals, streams and small rivers crisscrossing across the southern districts of Bangladesh, cultivation of winter vegetables on floating seedbeds has been popular among farmers for years.
To prepare these floating seedbeds, farmers use these aquatic plants, including water hyacinths, and some other varieties locally known as tepapona, dulali lata and fena. These plants, hence, are now of demand among vegetable farmers in this region.
Visiting the Baithakata floating market in Belua river in Pirojpur’s Nazirpur upazila, this correspondent recently observed that some people were selling these different varieties of water plants on small dinghies and engine boats.
On the market days, some 30 boats come from different neighbouring areas to sell these plants at the market.
Speaking to this correspondent, Md Abual Hossain, who came to the market from Madaripur, said they collect the plants from different areas, usually from paddy fields and waterbodies, and sell those at the market on every Tuesday and Saturday to farmers who cultivate winter vegetables.
In this way, they are earning from something otherwise considered worthless.
Farmers prepare a carpet-like floating base with these plants to plant the saplings of different winter vegetables. It is a century-old traditional practice that has become more common in recent decades due to a lack of cultivable lands in the region.
“A bundle of dulali lata fetches Tk 10. We can carry around 600 bundles of this plant on an engine boat. A type of moss sells for Tk 30 each bundle, whereas a boat full of fena, a small variety of water hyacinth, is sold between Tk 2,000-4,000,” Abual said.
Some people are even growing these plants on their lands in order to sell those to vegetable farmers later.
Bacchu Mia, another seller, said he cultivates fena on his land for six to seven months from Bangla month of Baishakh, to sell those ahead of winter.
Earlier, farmers could collect these plants at hardly any cost, but over time, with rise in demand, now these plants are fetching quite good prices, said the sellers.
Nanna Mia, a farmer from Baldia union of Pirojpur’s Nesarabad upazila, said he buys these plants from Baithakata Bazar for growing vegetable on floating beds since he has no time to collect those himself.
The sale of these water plants begins in early summer and continues till early winter, said Abdur Razzak, another farmer.
“For our vegetable cultivation, we are dependent on these water plants coming from different areas of Madaripur,” he also said.
They also collect some varieties from local sources, he added.