BSS, Jessore :
Farmers and officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) are expecting bumper production of summer vegetables in south-western region under Khulna division in the current season.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said, farmers of the 10 south-western districts cultivated summer vegetables on a total of 58, 710 hectares of land this year with the production target of 8. 66 lakh metric tons of different vegetables.
The ten districts are Jessore, Narail, Jhenidah, Magura, Khustia, Chuadanga, Meherpur, Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat.
All kinds of summer vegetable have flooded the district and upazila kitchen markets with excellent yield under favourable climate condition, official sources said.
District wise, the DAE has fixed a production target of land is as follows:12, 258 hectares of land were brought in Jessore with production target of 1,80,757 tons of vegetables, 2,068 hectares of land in Narail with production target of 30,505 tons, 9,575 hectares of land in Jhenidah with production target of 1,41,240 tons, 2,522 hectares of land in Magura with production target of 37,202 tons, 5,231 hectares of land in Kushtia with production target of 77,162 tons, 7,819 hectares of land in Chuadanga with production target of 1,15,337 tons, 4,606 hectares of land in Meherpur with production target of 67,943 tons, 6,876 hectares of land in Satkhira with production target of 1,01,427 tons, 4,914 hectares of land in Khulna with production target of 72,486 tons and 2,845 hectares of land in Bagerhat district with production target of 41,966 tons of vegetables.
The DAE and Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) have distributed sufficient quantity of quality seeds and other agro-inputs to the
farmers. DAE and BADC also provided them with necessary technical assistance.
Besides, different banks including Krishi Bank and NGO’s have disbursed agriculture loans and interest-free loans among the farmers to make the massive summer vegetables programme a success.
Farmers are expecting a bumper production of vegetables this fiscal year as they are getting at least 14-15 tons of summer vegetables from per hectare of land for proper monitoring by the authorities, DAE official sources said.
Additional Director of Jessore regional DAE Md. Abdul Aziz told BSS that necessary steps have been taken to ensure supply of adequate quantity of improved quality seeds, fertilisers, insecticides and other agricultural inputs among the growers in fair prices to boost summer vegetables production.
The farmers are expected to bring more land than the target as many people have been cultivating summer vegetables at their shrimp gher areas in the region, he added.
On the other hand, the vegetable traders in Jessore and other districts of the region have already started sending huge quantities of vegetables to different districts including capital city Dhaka by trucks and pick-up van every day.
