Economy Desk: The plain heaven of tea. The thought that it is possible to cultivate tea in Panchagarh, the northernmost district of the country, came from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s head. After the Awami League came to power in 1996, while visiting Banglabandha in Tentulia upazila of Panchagarh, the Prime Minister saw many tea plantations across the border towards India. But there is no tea garden in Bangladesh.
Then the Prime Minister said, if tea can be cultivated in India’s Darjeeling, then why not in Panchagarh? Both places have the same soil and environment. He is the Deputy Commissioner of Panchagarh. He instructed Rabiul Hossain to bring a sapling from there and test it. Collecting seedlings from India, DC planted them in a tub in his bungalow and started testing the feasibility of tea cultivation. Within a few days, the seedlings in his tub started sprouting fast. It was not possible for Rabiul Hossain to imagine then that the future of tea cultivation in Panchagarh was peeking out from among those saplings in the tub.
Following that, tea cultivation started in this district in 1999. After 24 years, everywhere you look in Panchagarh district, the horizon is full of tea plantations. The face of the entire district has changed. Under the patronage of the present government, there has been a silent revolution in the cultivation of tea in the plains by private enterprises, which has already taken over the international market by satisfying the needs of the country. In Panchagarh, the area under tea cultivation was 925 acres in 2006, which has now increased 13 times to 12,790 acres. The production of green leaves alone from tea cultivation is currently more than 90 million kg and tea production is about a quarter of 2 million kg annually.
Currently, there are a total of 9 large and 8 thousand 355 small-scale tea gardens in this district. With the development of the tea industry, massive employment has been created in the region. While only 1,475 workers were involved in this industry in 2006, today it has increased to 15,000. About 30 thousand workers of the district are connected directly and indirectly with this industry. Small farmers are earning 2-3 lakh per acre per year by selling raw tea leaves. Annual income from this industry is about Tk 280 crore, which is the second highest income in the country in the tea sector. The total production of tea in this district was 6.59 lakh kg in 2009, which increased to 1 crore 78 lakh kg in 2022.
Panchagarh District Commissioner (DC) Zahurul Islam said, for the development of the tea industry in the Panchagarh plain, the Prime Minister has already announced the opening of the country’s third tea auction center in the district, which will be inaugurated very soon. The number of tea gardens in the plains of Panchagarh is increasing day by day. Among the farmers of this district, interest in tea cultivation is more than other crops. On the one hand more people are being created with the establishment of small and big tea gardens, on the other hand the economic base of the region is getting stronger. As a result, in the last 14 and a half years, there has been a radical change in the quality of life of tea gardeners in this district.
If you look around the surface, you can see farmers and various big companies cultivating tea in the plains of Tentulia in Panchagarh district. As far as the eye can see, it is like a tea garden. Small and large tea gardens are being developed around each house on their own initiative. There are tea gardens on the side of the road or in the high fallow land or on the banks of ponds and even in the courtyards of houses. Others have cultivated tea as a companion crop of betel nut, mango, and bay leaf gardens.
A tamarind farmer named Rabiul Alam has cultivated tea on two bigha land next to the house. He said, ‘I have been cultivating tea in my land since 2013. My children and I are working in my garden. Picked up the leaves a few days ago. Now new leaves are coming, I will pick them again. Another tea grower of the same upazila, Mumtaz Begum said, “Earlier I used to grow paddy, but now I am very self-sufficient by growing tea.” Earlier, it was difficult for the family to survive with the paddy that I used to get in the year. No pain now. Small tea farmers like me who don’t have a factory sell leaves to other factories. Our fortunes have changed for Sheikh Hasina. Meanwhile, in the hope of getting cash, many people are making tea gardens by destroying paddy cultivation land, vegetable cultivation land, fruit orchards, bamboo plantations.
The small tea farmers of this district said that they have been doing tea plantations in the plains. Many local tea farmers have now established factories and become owners of the industry. Their initiative has provided massive employment opportunities to the local unemployed. Rafiqul Islam, a tea farmer of Pediagaj area, known as the tea village of Tentulia, said, “My father Ishahak Mandal and a few other local people first started small-scale tea cultivation. Currently we are very good. Panchagarh laborers collect stones by day, pick tea leaves by night: small lights are moving in the late night.
If you suddenly see someone from a distance, you can get scared thinking that it is a ghost. Those who are thought to be ghosts in fantasy are basically night workers. It was 2 o’clock in the night on the clock, they went down to the tea garden with flashlights on their heads to collect tea leaves. They go again during the day to collect stones or sand. Recently visiting various stone quarrying areas and tea gardens of Panchagarh, such scenes are seen. During the day, they are collecting stones or sand and at night they are collecting tea in groups. Each group consists of 15 to 20 workers.
