RAJSHAHI, Jan 15, 2019 (BSS)- Amidst a well harvest and better prices in
the market, the tomato growers in the region including the vast Barind tract
are happy this winter.
Tomato, an attractive vegetable to the consumers, has been appearing in
different local markets of the region for the last couple of weeks here.
Now the farmers are collecting tomatoes from their fields and selling
those in different local markets. Per maund of green tomatoes is being sold
at Tk 1,000 to 1,200 in the wholesale markets.
The farmers here mainly have cultivated different varieties of tomato
like ‘Nasib’, ‘NL-642’, ‘Slamot-83’, ‘Bongio’, ‘Mintu Super’, ‘Bizli’ and few
others in different areas across the whole upazila this season. The farmers
grow tomato in plenty and supply the vegetable worth Tk 2 to 3 crore to
capital Dhaka and other districts every year.
Abdul Awal, a tomato grower at Keshobpur village in Godagari upazila
said, “I cultivated tomato on three-bigha of land costing Tk 20,000 per bigha
this season. I have already started collecting tomatoes from the field and
selling in the markets”.
“We didn’t face any serious problem with the tomato crop this year,”
said Shariful Islam, another farmer of Pirijpur village under the same
upazila, who is happy with his harvest.
Officials of DAE said the cultivation has been increased by five to six
times during the last 15-20 years due to introduction of high yielding and
hybrid varieties of the vegetable.
“From the beginning of the season one maund of tomatoes sold for over
Taka 3,500,” said farmer Alimur Rahman.
“After picking tomatoes the first two times most growers already
recouped their production costs.”
Dr Shakhawat Hossain, senior scientific officer of Bangladesh
Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), said they developed 10 high yielding
and quality varieties and modern technologies to help the growers.
BARI has been implementing special programmes to promote those among the
farmers through arranging training and demonstration plots in different
areas.
The rates of production of the developed varieties are comparatively
high and profitable than the domestic varieties.
The farmers also prefer to cultivate some hybrid varieties which are
high yielding and much more profitable, Dr Hossain said.
Tomato is now considered as the second cash crop of the region, plays an
important role in the economy.