Tea plantation can help cut poverty in north: experts
Small scale tea plantations can help eradicate poverty in northern Bangladesh and create a sustainable avenue for income generation for the poor, said speakers at a workshop yesterday.
More than 1,000 households set an example in poverty eradication by way of finding sustainable means of income generation through small scale tea plantations in Tetulia and Sadar upazilas of Panchagarh and Baliadangi upazila of Thakurgaon in the last three years.
“We introduced the scale plantation among the people in northern Bangladesh in 2011 on barren land with a view to changing their livelihood and creating a means of income generation,” said Shahed Ferdous, country director of Traidcraft Exchange Bangladesh.
He was addressing a workshop on “Sustainable livelihoods for 1,500 smallholder farming households in the extreme north of Bangladesh” jointly organised by Traidcraft Exchange, the UK Aid and the Bikash Bangladesh at the Spectra Convention Centre in Gulshan in Dhaka.
Traidcraft, a British charity dedicated to fighting poverty through trade, has implemented a project on the small scale tea plantation with about Tk 6.65 crore funding from the UK Aid in the last three years.
Ferdous said the project supported small and marginal farmers to grow tea in their barren or semi-barren land.
Ruhidas Jodder, additional secretary to the commerce ministry; Nabila Nusrat, programme manager of Traidcraft Exchange, and Rozina Begum, a beneficiary of the project, also spoke.
