AN EMPERIACAL STUDY ON JAGGERY (GUR) INDUSTRY IN SIRAJGONJ DISTRICT

Abstract

Jaggery (Gur) is a natural, traditional product of sugarcane. It can be defined as a honey brown coloured raw lump of sugar. Sirajgonj District has large number of Jaggery manufacturing units, mostly located in the rural areas. Around one-third of the rural population in the study area is employed in Jaggery making industry. It is found that the manufacturers are producing majorly for distilleries and local licker producers, and for the food-plate or common man’s consumption. In the district, the major clusters which are having more numbers of manufacturing units are Kutirchar, Kalinja, and Sharutia. From 3 clusters, 35 plants were selected randomly for the study work. The paper examines the socio-economic status of the manufactures, cost-return analysis, profitability and operational efficiency of the jaggery processing units in the study areas. The study shows that 68.57% and 31.43% of the manufacturers live in nuclear and joint family respectively and monthly income of the families vary from TK. 2,500 to TK. 15,240. Agriculture is the main profession of 85.71% manufacturers. The study shows that 51.43% of the manufacturers are illiterate and they have no training certificate regarding jaggery manufacture. The rate of illiteracy is 47.59% in the manufacturer’s family. The study reveals that average profit earned by small, medium and large units are TK. 21,260, TK. 32,606.25 and TK. 40,300 respectively in a season. Only 3% and 5% of the manufacturer get government and private financial support respectively. The manufacturers are not interested in any new product of jaggery; they just want to earn more profit through jaggery.