Lesson 4/55 min
Tea, rubber, silk, mango and others
Tea
- Second main cash crop; a tropical plant that needs hilly slopes with heavy rain
- Moulvibazar has the most tea gardens; Habiganj is second
- First commercial tea garden of the subcontinent: Malnicherra, Sylhet (set up 1854)
- Before that, a garden was made near the Chattogram Club area in 1840 but soon vanished
- Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI): Srimangal, Moulvibazar
- First tea auction: Agrabad, Chattogram (1949); the second auction centre is Srimangal
- First tea museum: Srimangal
- Tea Board: set up in Chattogram in 1977; the owners' body is the Bangladeshi Cha Sangsad
- Organic tea began in Panchagarh (Meena Tea, 2000), in Tetulia only
- In the north, tea is grown in Panchagarh and Thakurgaon
- Tea cultivation began in China
Watch out: Books differ on the Malnicherra year. Banglapedia says the garden was set up in 1854 (Zubair gives 1857 for commercial production). The total number of gardens is reported as roughly 162 to 169 depending on year and source; Moulvibazar has about 90-92.
Rubber
- First rubber production: Ramu, Cox's Bazar, 1961
- Most rubber comes from Sylhet, Chattogram and Cox's Bazar
- Controlled by the Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation
Silk
- Grown in Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur and Bogura
- Chapainawabganj produces the most silk cocoons; the Silk Board is in Rajshahi
- “Silk City”: Rajshahi; silk farming is called sericulture
- Silkworms feed on mulberry leaves
Mango
- The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang first introduced the mango to the outside world
- Good mangoes come from Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon; Khirsapati is from Chapainawabganj
- Mango Research Centre: Chapainawabganj
- The national tree is the mango tree
- Ilamati: a newly developed late-ripening mango
Top districts by crop (Zubair's map and the books)
| Crop | District |
|---|---|
| Jute | Faridpur |
| Wheat | Thakurgaon |
| Tea | Moulvibazar |
| Tobacco | Kushtia |
| Cotton | Jashore |
| Potato | Munshiganj |
| Sugarcane | Natore |
| Silk cocoons | Chapainawabganj |
| Rubber | Cox's Bazar (Ramu) |
Check yourself
Which district has the most tea gardens?
At a glance
- 1
Tea is the second main cash crop; Moulvibazar has the most gardens; the research institute is at Srimangal.
- 2
The first commercial tea garden of the subcontinent was Malnicherra, Sylhet; a garden made in Chattogram in 1840 soon vanished.
- 3
Organic tea began in Panchagarh; in the north tea grows in Panchagarh and Thakurgaon; Jamalpur does not grow tea.
- 4
First rubber production was at Ramu, Cox's Bazar (1961); Chapainawabganj leads in silk, and Rajshahi is the “Silk City”.
- 5
Hiuen Tsang introduced the mango to the world; the Mango Research Centre is in Chapainawabganj.