By Dr Aynal Haque
RAJSHAHI, Nov 3, 2020 (BSS)- Muktar Ali, 45, has become delighted with good yield and lucrative market price of his newly harvested early winter vegetables at present inspiring many others to vegetable farming.
A resident of Hatibandha village under Godagari Upazila, Ali has developed himself as a potential vegetable farmer in the region. He has cultivated cabbage on three bigha of land, papaya on one bigha and brinjal on three bigha of land.
“I have been selling cabbage at Taka 20-25 per piece and brinjal at Taka 80-90 per kilogram from my land directly for the last couple of weeks,” Ali said, adding that the selling price has delighted him very much.
His co-villager Saiful Alam, 30, has brought three bigha of land under papaya, brinjal and cabbage each and he’s happy with his sale-proceeds.
Jamil Ahammed, 53, another farmer of Fulbari village under the same upazila, has cultivated around 10,000 cauliflowers on two bigha of land and the field has now become eye-catching.
He’s expected to start harvesting the vegetable within the next couple of days. Ahammed said the cauliflower was seen selling at Taka 60-70 per piece just a few days back at the local wholesale market.
Hundreds and thousands of farmers like Muktar, Saiful and Jamil in the area have become happy after attaining good yield and lucrative market price of the early winter, said Atanu Sarker, Sub Assistant Agriculture Officer of Godagari Upazila.
Muhammad Akhtaruzzaman, chairman of Dewpara Union Parishad in the Upazila, said more vegetables are grown in the area than any other place of the district.
He said vegetable farming in both commercial and homestead methods is gradually increasing in the vast Barind tract as many people are seen humming towards the farming leaving behind the high-irrigation consuming crops.
Swapan Ali, 45, a farmer of Panchandar village under Tanore Upazila, has become an icon of vegetable cultivation at his locality. His annual earnings are around Tk three to four lakh on an average at present.
He has started vegetable farming with brinjal on only five decimal of fellow land after failing to get irrigation water for Irri-boro farming around five years back.
His initial income was around Taka 20,000 that allured him to expand the farming commercially.
Under the ‘Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)’ project, more than 12.58 lakh community people of 2.66 lakh households are being motivated and encouraged towards vegetable farming to reduce the pressure on underground water.
The project is being implemented by DASCOH Foundation at around 1,280 drought-hit villages in 39 Union Parishads and three municipalities of eight upazilas in Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts since 2015, said Jahangir Alam Khan, Coordinator of the project.
Like previous years, varieties of early winter vegetables have been appearing in both retail and wholesale markets here abundantly making both the sellers and buyers happy for the last couple of weeks.
Farmers in the region including the vast Barind tract, are successfully producing early varieties of winter vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, radish, carrot, beet, turnip, tomato, leafy spinach, red spinach, and receiving lucrative prices in the wholesale markets.
Farmers in the region are very much happy as they avail the scopes of recouping the losses caused by the adverse impacts of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and devastating flood through catching the lucrative high price markets of early varieties of vegetables.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said 46,518 hectares of land have already brought under vegetable cultivation in the region this year. The production target has been set at around 23.56 tonnes from each hectare of land.
Around 20.42 lakh tonnes of vegetables are expected to be produced from 86,653 hectares of land in all eight districts in Rajshahi division during the current Rabi season, said Sudhendra Nath Roy, Additional Director of DAE, Rajshahi.