National Desk :
The Regional Agricultural Research Center, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Jashore arranged a field day on BARI invented hybrid summer tomato at Balrampur village of Bagharpara Upazila in Jashore on Saturday. The field day was organized with the funding of the programme titled ‘Adaptive trial, production and community based pilot production program of summer tomato in Bangladesh’. Director General of BARI Dr. Debasish Sarker was present as chief guest and inaugurated the field day. BARI Director (Planning and Evaluation) Dr. Apurba Kanti Chowdhury presided over the program while Chief Scientific Officer of On-Farm Research Division, Gazipur Dr. Md. Mazharul Anwar, Principal Scientific Officer of On-Farm Research Division, Khulna Dr. Md. Harunor Rashid, Deputy Director of Department of Agricultural Extension, Jashore Mr. Manjurul Haque, Senior Scientific Officer and Director of the Program Dr. Md. Faruque Hossain, were present as special guests. Chief Scientific Officer of the Regional Agricultural Research Center, BARI, Jashore Dr. Kawsar Uddin Ahmmad gave the welcome address and Scientific Officer of the RARS, Jashore Md. Babul Anwar conducted the program.
In his speech, Director General of BARI Dr. Debasish Sarker said, in 1996, the cultivation of summer tomato started in this Bagharpara upazila. At present, BARI hybrid tomatoes 4, 8 and 11 are being cultivated in this region on about 31 hectares of land. Among these, BARI Hybrid Tomato-8 variety is a mega variety as this variety has already gained immense popularity across the country. The current agri-friendly government is working to transform agriculture into profitable agriculture. A farmer is earning Tk 16,000.00 by spending Tk 7,000 on summer tomato cultivation per cent of land. So, this crop is very profitable for the farmer.
He said that currently 15 thousand metric tons of summer tomatoes are being produced in the country. Besides, about 20 thousand metric tons of tomatoes have to be imported from foreign countries. So if the production of summer tomatoes is increased in the country, the farmers will benefit and at the same time we will not need to import tomatoes.
This year we have supplied our own hybrid tomato seeds to the farmers on behalf of BARI and we want to provide quality seeds to the farmers in the future as well. For this we will provide special allocation if necessary.
