Photo: BSS

RANGPUR, Sept 11, 2026 (BSS) - Farmers across all five districts of the Rangpur agricultural region produced 9,938 tonnes of groundnuts, a highly profitable cash crop, during the recently concluded Kharif-1 season.

Market sources report that farmers are delighted with the handsome profits earned by selling their produce to wholesalers at rates ranging from Taka 6,200 to Taka 6500 per mound (40-kg).

Officials from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said a target of producing 11,492 tonnes of groundnut from 5,365 hectares of land was fixed for the region during the last Kharif-1 season.

However, farmers had finally cultivated groundnut on 5,084 hectares of land and produced 9,938 tonnes of the cash crop after completing harvest last week during the recently concluded Kharif-1 season in the region.

"In the last Kharif-1 season, a slight shortfall in the targeted area for groundnut farming was observed due to crop diversification, as farmers cultivated vegetables and maize on a larger area of land," said Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Krishibid Md Saiful Islam.

Farmers are preparing the same land for cultivating early varieties of winter vegetables, following the harvest of Kharif-1 season groundnuts in the five districts of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari in the region.

Consultant for Rupantar Project of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Bangladesh Krishibid Dr Md Mamunur Rashid told BSS that groundnut cultivation has become a highly profitable venture for farmers in recent years.

Farmers are reaping bumper harvests and obtaining satisfactory prices as the cultivation of high-yielding groundnut varieties developed by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) expands to the mainland and riverine char areas across the region.

"With the increasing demand for groundnut in the boosting food industry, farmers are expanding its cultivation in the mainland and vast riverine char areas, after getting repeated bumper yields and good prices in recent years," Rashid said.

Rashid, also a climate change and environmental expert, said that groundnut farmers are earning an average profit of up to Taka one-lakh by producing 25 to 30 mounds of groundnut per acre of land excluding farming costs of Taka 50,000 per acre.

He said, "People living along riverbanks and on char areas are benefiting from groundnut cultivation, driven by rising demand, low production costs, and good market prices, which is effectively improving their livelihoods and standards of living."

Groundnut trader Muhammad Mokhlesur Rahman at Rangpur City Market said farmers are selling their just-harvested groundnut in the last Kharif-1 season to wholesalers at rates between Taka 6,200 and 6,500 per mound depending on varieties and qualities.

"We are selling groundnut to the retailers at rates between Taka 6,400 and Taka 7,000 per mound after purchasing those from farmers at rural areas and local markets," he said.

Farmers Nurul Islam, Jahurul Alam, Anwarul Islam, Afzal Hossain and Harunur Rashid of Pirgachha and Kawnia upazilas in Rangpur said they got bumper groundnut yields during the just-concluded Kharif-1 season with rewarding prices.