Ferdousur Rahman, Bogra :
Winter vegetables have extensive import onto the market much earlier than the season and are selling at prices beyond the reach of common people.
Farmers in the district, including the flood affected areas, are successfully producing early varieties of winter vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, radish, carrot, turnip, tomato, leafy spinach, red spinach, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber and eggplant.
Officials at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said 12,800 hectares of land have been brought under vegetables cultivation in the district this year.
Production target has been set to around 25 tonnes from each hectare of land. Around nearly a 1.5 lakh ton of vegetables are expected to be produced in the district this season. Over 10 thousand people of 300 villages are involved in cultivating and selling different types of vegetables in the district. DAE officials also informed farmer targets cabbage and cauliflowers will be cultivated in 7500 hectors of land this year. Already 520 hectors of land are cultivated cauliflowers and 480 are cabbages.
Abual Ali, a farmer of Chandanbaisha village in Sariakandi upazila, said he cultivated cabbage in three bighas of land with spent about Tk 60,000 including seedling, care, fertilizer, irrigation and land rent.
The wholesale market price of cabbage is Tk Tk 20 to Tk 25 per kilogram. He said the farmers were making a profit of Tk 15,000 to Tk 20,000 of three bighas of land by cultivating early winter vegetables.
Md. Hannan Ali Fakir, another farmer of Mahasthan Garh village under Shibganj upazila of the district, said he spent about Tk 750 for cultivating a decimal of land cauliflowers in one decimal of land and got 1.5 to 2 mounds of crops.
The wholesale market price of cauliflower is between Tk 1,200 to Tk 15,00 per mound. He said the farmers were making a profit of Tk 1200 to Tk 1300 per decimal of land by cultivating early winter vegetables. Large quantities of vegetables are being transported to Dhaka, Chittagong and other major cities from Bogra district but early verities winter vegetables are so low.
Md. Badsha Mia, a local trader, said some 8 to 10 trucks were loaded with vegetables everyday going to the capital and other cities from Mahasthan Garh vegetable market. 10 to 12 trucks are loaded with early winter vegetables like cabbage and cauliflower.
A truck can carry up to 5 tons of cabbage and cauliflowers. On an average some 60 tons of green vegetables are being sent to different parts of the country. More 10 trucks long gourds are also being sent to different parts of the country from the vegetable hat, he added.
Mr. Chandi dash kunda, deputy director of DAE, Bogra, told The New Nation that vegetables were grown in all the upazilas of Bogra district but Sariakandi, Sonatola, Sherpur, Sajahanpur, Gabtoli and Dhunut upazilas had fertile land where yields were much higher.
One lakh tonnes winter vegetables production expected in Netrakona
BSS from Netrakona adds: Over one lakh tonnes of winter vegetables are expected to be produced in the district during the current winter season, district agriculture extension department (DAED) office sources here said.
According to the sources, meanwhile, the farmers could bring 5,507 hectors of land under the winter vegetable cultivation exceeding the district’s winter vegetable cultivation target which was fixed at 5,125 hectors of land.
The vegetables growers have also started harvesting of winter vegetables including tomato, bean, brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, radish, guard and bottle guard and these vegetables are being supplied to the kitchen markets in the district for selling, the sources said adding that as a result, the prices of winter vegetables remained within the purchasing capacity of the consumers.
Deputy director of the DAED Netrakona Dr. Bilash Chandra Paul told BSS here that the farmers could bring additional land under vegetable cultivation as the government, by this time, has taken many farmers-friendly programs including ensuring supplying of improved quality vegetable seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural equipments to the door-steps of the farmers to let them know modern methods of vegetables cultivation by reducing its production costs.
