By Dr Aynal Haque
RAJSHAHI, Nov 19, 2020 (BSS) – Shatahar Ali, 46, has already sold
cauliflower worth around Taka 80,000 from his farming field in the current
season inspiring many of his co-villagers to follow the same path for their
income-generations.
Ali, a farmer of Chuniapara village under Durgapur Upazila in Rajshahi
district, has brought one and half bigha of land under the advanced variety
of cauliflower farming spending around Taka 20,000.
Each piece of the winter vegetables is being sold at Taka 45-50 from his
farming field directly at present while one piece of it is being sold at Taka
70-80 in retail markets.
“I’m hoping to sell cauliflower worth over Taka1.5 lakh from my field this
season,” said Ali while talking to BSS Wednesday with a smiling face.
Upazila Agriculture Officer Moshiur Rahman said they had set a target of
bringing 865 hectares of land under the vegetables farming during the current
winter season, but the cash crops were cultivated on more land compared to
the target in the upazila consisting seven unions and one pourashava.
Of those, cauliflower has been cultivated on around 60 hectares of land
and the dominating areas are Joynagar, Kanpara, Chuniapara, Kolonhati and
Bajuskhali, he added.
The farmers are very happy because they are getting both lucrative yield
and price side by side by selling their harvested vegetables from their field
directly.
After meeting up the local demands, two to three trucks of the early
variety vegetable are being sent to Dhaka, Sylhet, Comilla, Chattagram and
Barisal in two days every week regularly.
Wholesale trader Fazley Hossain said demand for cauliflower in Durgapur is
higher than any other areas in different outside districts.
Agriculturalist Rahman said the early variety cauliflower has delighted
many of the farmers in this region as they have got a good chance of
recouping their losses caused by the adverse impact of novel coronavirus
(Covid-19) pandemic situation and devastating flood.
Farmers are successfully producing early varieties of winter vegetables
like cauliflower, cabbage, radish, carrot, beet, turnip, tomato, leafy
spinach, red spinach and receiving lucrative prices in the wholesale markets.
Hundreds of farmers like Shatahar Ali in Rajshahi division including its
vast barind tract have become happy after attaining good yield and lucrative
market price of the early winter vegetables.
He said vegetable farming in both commercial and homestead methods are
gradually gaining popularity in the vast Barind tract as many people are seen
humming towards the farming leaving behind the high-irrigation consuming
crops amid government and non-government initiatives.
On behalf of the ‘Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)’ project,
more than 12.58 lakh community people of 2.66 lakh households are being
motivated and encouraged towards vegetable farming to reduce the pressure on
underground water in the high-barind areas.
Meanwhile, varieties of early winter vegetables have been appearing in both
retail and wholesale markets here abundantly making both the sellers and
buyers happy for the last couple of weeks like previous years.
Sirajul Islam, Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension
(DAE), said over 60,000 hectares of land have already been brought under
vegetable cultivation in the region this year. The production target has been
set at around 23.56 tonnes from each hectare of land.
Around 20.42 lakh tonnes of vegetables are expected to be produced from
86,653 hectares of land in all eight districts in Rajshahi division during
the current Rabi season, he added.