Agriculture was the original occupation of Bengal. The soil, water and climate of this region were ideal for agriculture. Due to the location of Bengal in the lower reaches of the Himalayan basin, most of the rivers flowed over Bengal and merged into the Bay of Bengal. Numerous glaciers in the Himalayan mountains bordering China, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and India have flowed over Bengal in the form of molten rivers and streams, making the region Sujla, Shyamla and riverine. He has made life and livelihood easy. Made people soft. Has made culture multidimensional. Eating habits were also unique.
The type of crop production was versatile. Each farming family produced almost all the grains and spices they needed. At that time wheat, kaun, peas, pulses (mug, lentil, masakalai), coriander, onion, garlic, potato, sweet potato etc. were produced. The vegetables required for the family were mainly grown by women in the vicinity of the house, in the yard of the house, in the rice of the house. Pumpkins and bamboo twigs were used to cultivate pumpkins and sweet pumpkins were grown on jute scaffolding on house rice. Stems, turnips and other vegetables were grown on one side of the yard. Tomatoes, radishes, coriander leaves were cultivated in the small lands around the house. Large lands used to produce necessary crops including paddy, jute and wheat. In the socio-economic context of the time, women's activities were confined to the home. Men, on the other hand, were engaged in field work, crop production and non-mechanized irrigation, transportation and marketing of food grains. In the seventies, science and technology did not touch agriculture. So all the work related to agriculture, mainly manual labor and had to depend on cattle. The only recourse for land acquisition was for those who had less cows to join other families and collect each other's cows and yokes in turn to make each other's land. At that time plows, yokes, ladders, scissors, scissors, thin weeds (head tools to get rid of sun and rain) etc. were used for land cultivation and other management and irrigation water from canals, ponds and ditches was given to the land. Wooden doran and bamboo ora were used.
In the rural society, almost all the work including agriculture used to start from that morning and continued till 8-9 in the morning. This was followed by breakfast and some rest. Breakfast consisted of dried / watered panta rice cooked at night along with dried fruits and other vegetables, mashed potatoes, fried food etc.
The main goal was to start the work in the morning so that a lot of hard work like land preparation could be done before the sun sets. After breakfast and rest, the farmers would go down to the field again and continued till noon. Farmers (transfers) would not be brought home for lunch unless absolutely necessary. Their lunch was delivered to the field. So that time is not wasted and more work is possible. Land preparation, crop production, harvesting, bringing home, piles of grain, threshing, boiling, drying, pruning, threshing in pots (large earthenware pots), buckets and spheres (made of jute or bamboo). Although these works were mainly done by men, only women used to participate in the work of boiling, drying and breaking the paddy. The peasants of the village usually came together and in time cut the crops of the settled families from the field. After the completion of this work, the well-to-do families would provide good food to the farmers at different times. Which created a joyous and festive atmosphere among the farmers. When the paddy was harvested, the ferrymen, barbers and other poor and lower caste people used to collect paddy from the affluent families as an annual wage in return for their services.
The market was two days a week. There were no shops nearby except the weekly market to meet the daily needs of the people. However, every morning fresh fish, vegetables, milk and other ingredients were bought and sold in a short range for a short period of time in those markets. This short market management in the morning was prevalent as ‘Arang’. It goes without saying that there was no expansion of industry at that time. Government employees were also limited to basic economic activities in a few government banks. It goes without saying that there was no cash in the hands of anyone other than government employees and bankers. So most of the people used to sell their surplus products in the market and buy the necessary products. At that time salt and kerosene oil were essential for every family in the daily market. Because, these two products did not have the opportunity to be produced domestically. Therefore, salt for cooking and kerosene oil were used in cups and hurricanes for daily evening light. To save on Kupi and Hurricane fuel, most of the families in the village used to go to bed early after evening activities, eating and drinking, educating the children and performing Esha prayers. It goes without saying that there was no sugar, but the availability of sugarcane molasses was sufficient. Mustard oil was in the first place as cooking oil. However, sesame oil was also used in the field. All this was pure. There were wooden grinders for oil refining (making); Which was driven by cows. The owner of the oilseeds would get the oil produced from the mill. On the other hand, the khail (which was left after the oil came out) would be grinded. This barter system was mainly due to the scarcity of cash.