Cultivation of mat-sedge and its valuable products can play an important economic role in rural areas of West Bengal, India. Mat-sedge provides a gainful employment opportunity to the resource-poor farming community for their secured livelihoods. A preliminary survey and contact with the farmers at Sabong and Pingla blocks in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal indicated that it is widely cultivated mostly as a monocrop with poor management practices by the poor and marginal farmers, resulting in low returns. Improved agro-techniques are needed for higher returns. As the mat-sedge is perennial in nature and grows round the year, annually three cuttings are taken consecutively at the end of kharif, winter, and summer season. From this raw material, mats are generally made with the help of a few wooden pegs, poles, and threads at home. Even an elderly man or woman (aged family members of a farmer’s family) in rural areas can earn a net income of about 60 tò 80 per day. The ever growing population poses a number of problems and the major thrust falls on the agricultural sector. Presently, agriculture is facing under-employment. Cultivation of mat-sedge crop and its value-added products and production of mat-reed of different quality can play a vital economic role. In West Bengal, India about 100,000 farm families are associated and solely or partly dependent on mat-sedge cultivation for their secured livelihoods.
(PDF) Madur Kathi – An Important Economic Non-food Crop of West Bengal. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279485980_Madur_Kathi_-_An_Important_Economic_Non-food_Crop_of_West_Bengal [accessed Oct 21 2018].
Daroonjinish 