Photo: BSS

By Md Mamun Islam

RANGPUR, Nov 21, 2025 (BSS) – The vast char areas and dried up riverbeds of Rangpur agricultural region are gradually being covered now with the beautifully growing tender plants of winter crops, turning green all around.
 
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said people are expected to bring around one-lakh hectares of land under crop farming during the current 2025-2026 Rabi season in the region.

Char and riverside people have continued to sow seeds of various winter crops in the char lands in all five districts of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari in the region.

Tender plants of the winter crops are growing superbly as the dried-up riverbeds and char bottoms have become fertile due to the accumulation of large amounts of silt and silt in the recent floods, as is the case every year.

Talking to BSS, Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Krishibid Md Sirajul Islam said people are cultivating winter crops on some 82,000 hectares of land in all five districts of the region every year.

The riverside and char people and farmers are producing about six-lakh tonnes of various crops worth Taka 1,200 crore from 82,000 hectares of char lands and dried-up riverbeds in Rangpur agricultural region yearly.

“Char people are expanding cultivation of various winter crops mostly adopting intercropping and mixed-relay methods aiming at completing a bumper harvest by May before commencement of the next rainy season,” he said. 

Md Mamunur Rashid, a PhD Fellow in the Department of Agricultural Extension at Dinajpur Haji Mohammad Danesh University of Science and Technology, said crop cultivation on char lands and silted-up riverbeds is expanding every year.
 
People are mostly cultivating potato, sweet pumpkin, sesame, linseed, squash, brinjal, onion, carrot, garlic, green chili, gourd, bitter gourd, banana, mustard, pulses, cauliflower, cabbage, mustard, sunflower, groundnut and wheat, maize, indigenous varieties of Boro rice and vegetables on char lands.  
 
The vast wetlands, bottomlands and alluvial plains of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Dudhkumar, Ghaghat, Yamuna, Kartoa and other rivers are gradually turning into attractive greenery with the progress of winter crop cultivation.

“People will begin harvesting their cultivated crops from late December to end the process before the commencement of the rainy season,” Mamunur Rashid said.

Deputy Director at Burirhat Horticulture Centre in Rangpur of the DAE Krishibid Dr Md Abu Sayem said expanded cultivation of crops on char lands has changed fortunes of many char people across Rangpur agricultural region.

“Getting assistance from the government, many char families have already achieved self-reliance through farming various crops on char lands improving their livelihoods in recent years,” Sayem said.

Talking to BSS, people living in char villages of Paschim Mohipur, Gannarpar, Kolkond, Bagdohra, Purbo Mohipur and Chhalapak in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur said they are busy in sowing seeds and taking care of growing tender plants of winter crops.

Char people Anwar Hossain, Abul Quasem, Farhaduzzaman and Kobiza Khatun of Purbo Mohipur village said they have already cultivated winter crops like onions, pumpkin, ‘Khira’, green chilli, maize and other crops in the dried-up beds of the Teesta.

“I hope to harvest and sell ‘Khira’, onions and other crops from the end of December,” said Anwar Hossain.
 
He expected to earn a better profit of around Taka one-lakh excluding all expenses after completing harvest of his cultivated crops cultivated on two-acres of char lands by mid-May next.
 
Couple Shahinur Islam and Fancy Begum of Char Purbo Mohipur village in the upazila said they have cultivated crops like onions, pumpkin, ‘Khira’, green chilli, maize and other crops on two acres of char lands in the dried-up beds of the Teesta this season.
 
 They also expected to earn a better profit of around Taka two lakh excluding all expenses after completing harvest of his cultivated crop by mid-May next.
 
Couple Aminul Islam and Ummey Kulsum of village Char Taluk Shahbaz in Kawnia upazila of Rangpur said they are cultivating pumpkin, groundnut, onion, garlic and vegetables on two acres of sandy char lands on dried-up beds of the Teesta this season.
 
Char people have reported that the repeated bumper production of various winter crops on char lands during the winter keeps the char economy alive and also enriches the fortunes of many of them.