Ttomato has been started to appearing in different local markets of Rajshahi district.
The vegetable are being produced here on more lands than the other upazilas across the district.
The farmers of Godagari upazila of the district are now passing busy time for collection of tomatoes from their fields and they have already started to sell those in different local markets.
But, they are very much frustrated in the beginning of this season because of low price of the produce.
Although, the farmers of different upazilas under the district had suffered a huge loss cultivating tomato last year, they have produced it in 3, 211 hectares of land this season which is 65 hectares less than the previous year.
Sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Godagari upazila said, a total of 2,650 hectares of land have been brought under tomato cultivation this season. The previous year’s cultivation was 2,620 hectares of land. This year farmers has crossed something limits of the produce.
Different varieties of tomatoes mainly here have been produced like Bongobir, VL-642, USA-Nosib and other hybrid categories tomatoes. The farmers here grow tomato in plenty and supply those in different parts of the country every year, also said DAE sources.
The farmers of the upazila said that they have been cultivating tomato here since two decades abreast the cultivation of wheat and paddy. They had got satisfactory produce with fair price in the last year but this season the vegetable cultivation is not well because of using waste seed in their fields and there was no proper winter weather. Per maund tomato is being sold this year at Tk 700 to 1,000.
Rafiqul Islam, a tomato grower of Charasaria Union of the upazila said, he has cultivated tomato this season on 10 bighas of land. Although he had earned adequate profits last year cultivating tomatos, this year he was so much worried because of low price of the produce as he has sold per maund of tomatoes only at Tk 6, 00 this season. He spends at Tk 1,500 on per bigha of land. He has been expecting that he will get additional profits in future if the weather is remaining well, also said Rafiqul Islam.
Afzal Hossain, another tomato grower at Bosontopur village of the upazila said that he has been cultivating tomato for a long. Even, he has more of lands but there is no any interest to cultivate tomato lack of well seeds and sufficient facilities. Despite this situation, he has cultivated VL-642 hybrid tomato on 1 bigha of land in this season.
He also developed an automatic fire extinguisher that could be operated even in case of power failure.
The fire extinguisher will start operation within 5-10 seconds of identifying the origin of any fire and turn on the water pump automatically and a cellphone joined with the device will inform others about the fire, he said.
This mechanical device won both the first and the second prizes in the Science and Technology Fair at divisional and national levels respectively.
Mizan also invented a jacket and a helmet which can provide security to firefighters during fire accidents. Mizan’s another invention is a motorcar which could be used for the development of autistic people. This can be run both with patrol and electricity.
He also developed a device by using which farmers will be able to switch on and off their automatic irrigation machines remotely.
For this device, Mizan won the Environment Award at national level on June 5, 2016 and received 17 other awards from Upazila Parishad, district and divisional levels.
His motorcar made with local technology was included in the Access to Information (a2i) project of Prime Minister’s Office.
Mizan said his only dream is to work for the country and the nation. Currently, he is working for developing an air purification machine. “If I get more assistance from the government, I’ll be able to invent more devices,” he added.
