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AyRojgar

Ginger and turmeric farming

A ten to eleven month crop where the biggest slice of capital is seed rhizome: 375-400 kg a bigha, which at today's prices is Tk 45,000-70,000.

  • Last reviewed: 21 September 2026
  • Version 1
Ginger and turmeric farming

Ginger and turmeric farming

Starting capital
৳20,000 – ৳2,50,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 6 people
First sale
75 – 315 days
Official source
Break-even
10 – 24 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Farm · Hard

About the business

Ginger and turmeric are rhizome crops from the same family, planted together and lifted together, so many farmers grow both. Planting runs from early April into May; ginger comes up at 300-315 days and turmeric at 270-300, which means December and January. The real story here is the seed. The Agriculture Information Service puts the seed rate at 2,800-3,000 kg a hectare using 40-45 gram setts, roughly 375-400 kg a bigha. Seed ginger and eating ginger are the same thing, so the seed price rides the market price. On 20 September 2026 domestic ginger was Tk 120-140 a kg retail in Dhaka; even at that rate a bigha's seed costs Tk 45,000-56,000. A high ginger price one year means dear seed the next, and that is exactly the year everybody plants, so the price falls by the time the crop is lifted. Above all this sits Indian ginger. When imports through Hili and Sonamasjid rise, the domestic price comes down with them; imported ginger was Tk 120-160 in Dhaka on 20 September 2026, and that import price is what sets the ceiling. There is one relief: lifting and selling the side rhizomes, the pilai, 75-90 days after planting recovers 50-60 percent of the seed cost. And the worst fear is rhizome rot, which can take a whole field.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳5,000 – ৳20,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳120 – ৳350 / kgDisputed
Variable cost৳15 – ৳90 / kgEditorial estimate
Gross margin25% – 85%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue75 – 315 daysOfficial source
Break-even time10 – 24 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle240 – 300 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss10% – 40%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity1 – 56Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • Seed rhizome: at 40-45 gram setts, 2,800-3,000 kg a hectare or 375-400 kg a bigha. At the Tk 120-140 Dhaka retail rate of 20 September 2026 that is Tk 45,000-56,000 a bigha. A separate price for seed ginger could not be found anywhere; it usually runs at or above the eating price.Starting stock
  • Fertiliser: for ginger, per hectare, 5 tonnes cow dung, 304 kg urea, 267 kg TSP, 233 kg MOP, 111 kg gypsum and 3 kg zinc sulphate. For turmeric, 5 tonnes cow dung, 325 kg urea, 300 kg TSP, 280 kg MOP, 140 kg gypsum, 8 kg boric acid and 14 kg zinc sulphate.Starting stock
  • Fungicide and insecticide: Dithane M-45 for seed treatment (100 grams to 100 kg of seed), Autostin or Ridomil Gold; neem cake (2 kg a decimal) or Furadan (2-2.5 kg a bigha) for the soil; quinalphos for storage.Starting stock
  • No licence is needed to grow the crop. But grinding dried turmeric and selling it packed under your own name is no longer farming, it is food processing, and then a trade licence (form Tk 10, standard tax Tk 30, licence book Tk 50, stamp Tk 150-300, 3-5 working days) and BSTI certification apply. Selling fresh, or whole dried turmeric at the haat, needs nothing.Licence
  • Spotting rhizome rot and rhizome fly early. With rot the lower leaf edges yellow, the plant wilts, pulls out easily and smells of decay. A week's delay costs the whole field.Skill
  • A source of high-yielding seed: BARI Ada-1, 2 and 3 and BARI Holud-1 (Dimla), 2 (Sinduri), 3 and 5 come from the Spices Research Centre of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute. BARI Holud-1 yields about three times the local variety. Where to get this seed has to be asked at the upazila agriculture office.Supplier
  • High, well-drained land with partial shade, and a shaded room or an earth pit for storing seed: 5 cm of sand at the bottom, straw on top and a cow dung plaster on the walls.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Leave last year's plot alone. Do not plant where ginger or turmeric grew the year before, and avoid land that carried potato or other rhizome crops. Without rotation, rhizome rot stays in the soil.
  2. 2In March or April, once the rains bring the soil to condition, plough and ladder six to eight times. Make beds 1.5 metres wide with drains 1-1.5 feet deep around them and a 50 cm channel between beds. Standing water is where the rot starts.
  3. 3Treat the soil: 2 kg of neem cake a decimal, or 2-2.5 kg of Furadan a bigha. Alternatively, 15-20 days before planting, plough the land, spread rice husk or sawdust over it and burn it off.
  4. 4Work out the seed before you buy it. With 40-45 gram setts that is 2,800-3,000 kg a hectare, or 375-400 kg a bigha. This is the largest single piece of capital. Holding back last year's own crop as seed saves exactly this, and it is the biggest decision in the business.
  5. 5Treat the seed: 100 grams of Dithane M-45 in 75-80 litres of water, soak 100 kg of seed rhizome for 30-40 minutes, then dry it in the shade. Spread in baskets and covered with straw or sacking it sprouts in a few days, and sprouted seed comes up faster.
  6. 6Plant from the first or second week of April into May. In single rows, open furrows 50-60 cm apart and 5-6 cm deep and set the seed 25-30 cm apart with the sprouted eyes all facing the same way. That layout is what makes the pilai easy to lift later. Late planting stunts the crop and costs yield.
  7. 7At the last ploughing mix in all the cow dung, TSP, gypsum and zinc and half the MOP. Half the urea goes on 50 days after planting, the rest of the urea and MOP in two equal splits at 80 and 110 days. Weed before every dose and earth up around the plants.
  8. 8At 75-90 days, open the soil on one side of the row, lift the pilai and sell it. The Agriculture Information Service puts the recovery at 50-60 percent of the seed cost. This one step takes most of the pressure off the ten-month wait.
  9. 9Act the moment the first symptoms show in August or September: 4 grams of Blitox-50 or 2 grams of Ridomil Gold a litre of water, poured at the base every 15-20 days. Yellow leaves and plants that pull out easily mean rhizome rot or rhizome fly, and waiting costs the field.
  10. 10In December and January, when the leaves yellow and dry off, loosen the soil with a spade and lift. For turmeric, BARI Holud-2 comes at about 270 days and BARI Holud-1 at about 300.
  11. 11Boil and dry turmeric before selling. BARI Holud-1 gives 8 kg dried from 40 kg fresh (1:5) and BARI Holud-2 gives 10 kg from 40 (1:4). Dried turmeric fetches far more and keeps for months, but the weight drops to a fifth, so do the sums on that ratio.
  12. 12Set aside next year's seed. Pick the larger rhizomes, treat them in 0.1 percent quinalphos and 0.3 percent Dithane M-45, dry in the shade and store in a pit layered with sand, 2 cm of sand or sawdust over each layer, leaving gaps for air. This one job saves the biggest cost of the next season.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarLow
  4. AprHigh
  5. MayHigh
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitBandarban · A listed ginger district, though the distance to market leaves growers more dependent on middlemen.
  • Strong fitKhagrachhari · A major source of hill ginger and turmeric, where the partial shade ginger wants comes naturally from the tree cover.
  • Strong fitLalmonirhat · The first name on the Agriculture Information Service's ginger list, with high sandy loam and good drainage.
  • Strong fitNilphamari · On both lists, and the district where growing ginger in sacks has spread furthest.
  • Strong fitRangamati · One of the main ginger districts on the Agriculture Information Service's list; water does not stand on the hill slopes, so rhizome rot is less.
  • Strong fitTangail · The only district on both the ginger and the turmeric lists; the high red soil of Madhupur suits both crops.
  • PossibleDinajpur · A listed ginger district, but with Hili land port close by the price falls here first when imports rise.
  • PossibleKushtia · A listed turmeric district.
  • PossibleNaogaon · A listed turmeric district, where turmeric does well on the high Barind land.
  • PossiblePabna · A listed turmeric district with local arats for dried turmeric.
  • PossibleRajbari · A listed turmeric district, where rhizomes swell well in the sandy loam along the Padma.
  • PossibleRangpur · A listed ginger district, but the land competes hard with maize and potato.

Risks and cautions

  • HighWorking capital: Most of the capital locks up in seed, in a single day. At 375-400 kg a bigha the seed rhizome costs Tk 45,000-56,000 at today's rates, paid in one go in April, and the money comes back ten months later. Anyone who borrows to buy seed pays interest for all ten of those months.
  • HighDependency: Indian ginger sets the ceiling on the domestic price. Let imports through the land ports rise and the domestic rate follows down within days. On 20 September 2026 imported ginger in Dhaka was Tk 120-160 against domestic at Tk 120-140, so the local crop was not fetching more than the import. A farmer can do nothing about it then, because the crop is out of the ground and there is nowhere to hold it.
  • HighSpoilage: Rhizome rot can take an entire field. It is soil and seed borne and travels on the seed rhizome, the soil, the tools, even on shoes worn in the field, and the humid monsoon makes it savage. Rhizome fly destroys some fields outright too. Losing one bigha means over Tk 45,000 of seed money left lying in the ground.
  • HighDemand: The price-and-area cycle. A year of high ginger prices brings everyone into the crop the next season, so the price falls at lifting, in the very season the seed was bought dear. Ginger occupies the land for 300-310 days, in which two other crops could have been taken, which is why many farmers do it one year and step away the next.
  • MediumLate payment: Both crops go through middlemen. Cash at the haat pays less; consigning to an arat pays a little more but pays later. After ten months of waiting few farmers can afford another few weeks, so most take the lower cash price.
  • LowCompliance: Markets are raided regularly over colouring added to dried turmeric. Grinding and packing it yourself is not possible without a trade licence and BSTI certification; selling whole dried turmeric avoids all of it.

Sources

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Stories about this business

What workedA woman growing ginger in Narail, in a Protidiner Bangladesh report

10,000 sacks of ginger on waterlogged land: 6.5 lakh spent, 16-17 lakh hoped for

Ten thousand sacks of ginger on about 1.5 acres of low-lying land beside the homestead, at a cost of 650,000 taka. The crop takes nine months; at the time of the report she expected to sell 16-17 lakh taka of ginger, which had not yet been sold.

Capital
৳6.5 lakh
Ran for
9 months
Reasons
Working capital

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