KHULNA, June 17, 2019 (BSS) – After achieving a bountiful output of winter vegetables during the just-ended Rabi season, the farmers are expecting a bumper production of summer vegetables during this Kharif-1 season in Khulna agriculture region.
Talking to BSS, officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) here said all varieties of summer vegetables have already appeared lavishly in local markets with excellent prices bringing smiles to the farmers’ faces of the region.
The DAE has fixed a production target of 3.92 lakh tonnes of summer vegetables from 22,275 hectares of land for all four districts in Khulna agriculture region for this Kharif-1 season.
Meanwhile, the farmers have already cultivated summer vegetables on 20,900 hectares of land so far and it will be continued, we hope the fixed farming target exceeding this year,” Additional Director of the DAE for Khulna region Agriculturist Kazi Abdul Mannan said.
The DAE, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute and other agriculture related organisations extended assistance to the farmers to make the intensive summer vegetables cultivation programme a success.
After getting repeated bumper output with lucrative market price, the farmers are cultivating vegetables on more lands, including homesteads and char areas and many of them have changed fortunes through farming vegetables twice annually.
“Braving the present situation in the wake of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the farmers have exceeded the fixed farming target of summer vegetables for the region where sowing of the seeds still continues,” said Deputy Director of DAE in Khulna Agriculture Pankaj Kanti Majumder.
Vegetable-traders Abdul Hakim and Asadur Rahman at KCC Sandha Bazar (Evening kitchen market) said the farmers are currently selling different varieties of summer vegetables at between Taka 25 and Taka 45 per kg to the middlemen or whole sellers on an average.
“The retail prices are, however, higher by Taka 15 to Taka 20 per kg in the local markets as some vegetables are being perished during transportation and marketing process especially under the present COVID-19 pandemic situation,” Hakim said.