'Polythene method' brings hope for salt farmers

Some 50,000 farmers cultivate salts on around 68,000 acres of land in the coastal areas of Cox's Bazar and Banshkhali in Chittagong to meet the annual demand of around 9.5 lakh tonnes for the country.

But, so far they could have hardly earned profit due to poor output attributed to traditional method of cultivation and inclement weather.

Besides, insufficient bank loan, middlemen and money lenders, and loopholes of government purchase policy were there to worsen the situation, salt farmers said.

The farmers hope to reap a good harvest this year as the "polythene method" and the fair weather already helped them produce over six lakh metric tons of salt, two lakh tonnes higher than that of the corresponding period of last season (November to June).

They are hopeful of exceeding the current season's production target of 10.5 lakh tonnes, if fair weather continues. They also hope a good profit with the current price of their products.

Production increased after the farmers had adopted modern "polythene method" introduced by the salt project of Bangladesh Industry for Small and Cottage (BISC) in Cox's Bazar. Salt is produced from salty water gathered on polythene-covered salt-beds. The salts produced under new method are clean and white, as they do not get mixed with sand.

A group of salt farmers from Chakoria in Cox's Bazar said this while they were talking to this correspondent at Sadarghat in the port city on Monday.

The officials told the farmers that they would get at least 15 per cent higher production if they introduce modern method. They produced over 30 per cent higher than the traditional method yielded, farmers said.

The salt farmers from Cox's Bazar said that the higher rate of production encouraged them to go for the modern method. Though it cost a bit higher and rate of borga (rate of leased out salt-bed) went up by more than two times. The farmers brought 12,000 acres of land under salt cultivation under "polythene method" as against 5,000 acres last season, they said.

The borga rate went up as high as Tk 13,000 per kani this year against Tk 4,500 per kani last year, they said.

"Yet, we hope to get expected profit this time as the price of our products is satisfactory this year," they said.

Salt was sold at Tk 80 per maund in the salt-bed last season while it sells at Tk 240 this season and in Dhaka at Tk 300, they said.