“Granaries full of paddy and ponds full of fish” is a long-held proverb of rural Bengal, symbolising agrarian prosperity, but while ponds are still teeming with fish, paddy-filled granaries have largely disappeared.
In the greater Dinajpur region, long known as one of the country’s key grain belts, the traditional golaghar—earthen granaries once central to farmers’ lives—are now on the verge of extinction as changing farming practices and modern storage methods reshape village life.
Dinajpur district, comprising 13 upazilas, was once dotted with bamboo, cane and mud-built granaries where farmers stored harvested paddy throughout the year, but such structures are now rarely seen, turning what was once a marker of wealth and status into a fading memory.
Older residents recall a time when social standing was judged by the number of granaries a household owned, while even marriage negotiations involved inquiries about how many paddy stores stood in a family’s courtyard.
Built with bamboo frames plastered thickly with mud inside and out, the granaries had elevated entrances to deter thieves and pests, and were visible from afar as symbols of rural affluence.
Local farmers say constructing a granary once cost between Tk8,000 and Tk10,000, and women would carefully re-plaster them with fresh mud before each harvest season to prepare for storing newly cut rice.
In those days, wet Aus paddy harvested during the Bengali month of Bhadra was often stored in granaries when drying in muddy fields proved impossible, producing harder rice but ensuring food security for months.
Over time, however, the spread of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, mechanised ploughing and modern rice mills has transformed agricultural practices, leaving farmers with little surplus paddy to store in traditional ways.
Instead of granaries, paddy is now kept in jute or plastic sacks inside homes or in modern warehouses, gradually pushing the golaghar out of everyday use.
The decline has also affected skilled granary builders, once common across rural areas, who used to travel from village to village constructing bamboo granaries but have now shifted to other occupations due to lack of demand.
Iqbal of West Shibrampur village in Dinajpur Sadar Upazila said the granary in his courtyard was more than a century old and carried memories of his grandfather and father, but such structures have almost vanished from the area.
Another elderly resident of the same village, Nur Jahan, said life had changed dramatically, with traditional spaces replaced by locked, modern houses, describing the shift as a harsh reality.
Farmers also pointed out that storing paddy in granaries protected crops from rats and insects, and a large granary could typically hold between 200 and 300 maunds of paddy.
A handful of old granaries can still be found in the courtyards of some homesteads across Dinajpur, but they now stand empty, preserved only as symbols of a bygone rural heritage.
As modern storage facilities increasingly take over, the traditional golaghar is fast disappearing from village, leaving the next generation with little more than stories and memories of a once-central part of agrarian life.
