Tea cultivation on plain land in five northern districts including Panchagarh made a new horizon in tea farming.
In the last fiscal year, tea from the plain land added 15 per cent tea in the national production during the season.
Panchagarh is the third largest tea producer district in the country after Sylhet and Chattagram.
Tea gardening has created employment for thousands of people in the region. Besides, tea cultivation has become a profitable venture to change the fortune of farmers and improve the living standard of farm labourers.
Tentulia Tea Company Limited first started farming tea on plain lands on a commercial basis in Tentulia of Panchagarh in 2000 directed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Observing better results and quality of produced tea in Tentulia, some other companies and enthusiastic local farmers started commercial-basis tea farming there in 2005
Now, Panchagarh has become one of the important regions for tea production and the district is keeping an important role in the national economy.
Currently, there are nine registered and twenty-one unregistered big tea estates in Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Dinajpur districts.
Besides, these five districts have 1,745 registered and 8,087 unregistered small-scale and small-holding tea gardens.
Tea farming continues increasing every year in the region changing the fortunes of thousands of small, marginal and bigger farmers.
Owners of 25 factories in Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, and Lalmonirhat buy tea from the farmers.
The authority supplies tea saplings to the farmers which inspired them to cultivate tea in the northern region.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
