The sunflower cultivated in 10 acres of public abandoned land which is used as brick kiln previously is now an example. It has been cultivated under the supervision of authorities of Gopalpur upazila administration of Tangail.
Parvez Mallick, UNO of the upazila, said that people eagerly come from far to see the sunflower garden and appreciate the great initiative.
In 1957, a total of 10 acres of land at Bhuarpara area of Gopalpur was acquired by the then government for setting up a brick kiln. However, the brick kiln was closed after 1973. Since then, the land was abandoned.
The local people portioned the abandoned land of the brick kiln and used it for various daily activities. Some also made building as temporary homesteads. Someone cut the soil from land and removed elsewhere.
Recently, the district administration recovered the 10 acres of land. Local fire service and civil defense offices were set up on 35 percent out of the land. In the remaining part, sunflowers are being cultivated now with the support of the upazila administration. Under the direct supervision of Gopalpur UNO, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is implementing the 'Sunny Farming Project'.
Nurul Islam, Tula Mia, Hasmat Ali, and the housewives Rashida, Jamila, Ratoa of Bhuarpara area of Gopalpur municipality said that the land was lying fallow for a long time. It has been very good to cultivate sunflowers on fallow land under government initiative. It looks really very nice.
Abbas Ali, who is in charge for the security of the land, said he works regularly in the sunflower field now that afford his family running well.
Shamima Akhtar, Upazila Agriculture Officer of Gopalpur; said that fertilizer has been given from the upazila agricultural office. 40 kg of sunflower seeds have been sown on 10 acres of fallow land. Irrigation arrangements have also been made by the upazila administration. All made employment opportunities for those who are working as labours.
Shamima Akhtar also said that the climate of the country is favorable for sunflower cultivation. They spent Tk 2000 per kg of seeds and planted them expecting about 10 tons of sunflowers to be produced from here. 17 to 20 kg of oil is produced from one mon of sunflower seeds. The price of sunflower oil is sold at Tk 1,500 to Tk 1,800 per kg.
UNO Parvez Mallik said that this project has been undertaken by the advice from Jasim Uddin Haider, Deputy Commissioner of Tangail. He thinks that this is the biggest project of sunflower (suryamukhi) in the country. By experiencing this project, many farmers will be encouraged to grow sunflower finally.
Jasim Uddin Haider said that besides meeting the demand for edible oil from sunflower, the amount of sunflower seeds produced from this garden will be given free of cost to farmers in different parts of 12 upazilas of Tangail.
By information, in 12 upazilas of Tangail, 230 hectares of land is targeted for sunflower cultivation this year, but 242 hectares of land has been planted. Target for sunflower production has been set at 464 metric tons this year as well.