Tangail farmers dream of changing their fortunes with early winter vegetables

Photo: Collected

With favourable weather, the advice of the agriculture department, modern technology and intensive care, the greenery of early winter vegetables has spread across the horizon-wide fields of Tangail right at the beginning of Ashwin. Although there are still about more than three months left for winter to come, the district’s farmers are passing busy time cultivating early vegetables.

With technical assistance in using quality seeds and the advice of the Department of Agricultural Extension, local farmers are weaving dreams around winter vegetable cultivation in the hope of good prices.

They are now busy cultivating winter vegetables in different upazilas of the district. Various types of winter vegetables, including radish, cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, local bottle gourd, carrot and beans, can already be seen in field after field.

In particular, the farmlands of the hilly areas of Madhupur, Ghatail, Dhanbari and Sakhipur, renowned for vegetable cultivation, and of the char areas of the Jamuna and Dhaleshwari basins are now filled with all kinds of vegetables. As the weather is favourable, growers are successfully raising crops. Farmers are becoming even more interested than before in the hope of good prices for new winter vegetables.

Visiting different upazilas of the district on the spot, row after row of vegetable cultivation was seen across vast fields. Cultivation of various winter vegetables, including radish, cauliflower, cabbage, beans, bottle gourd, tomato, red amaranth, spinach and Malabar spinach, has begun on most of the land. In some places, early varieties of red amaranth, radish and bottle gourd have already started arriving in the market.

As demand for new vegetables is high at the beginning of the season, farmers are getting good prices in the market. The men and women farmers of this region are working hard from the crack of dawn till evening in the hope of higher yields and the desired profit. Some are preparing land for planting new seedlings, some are putting soil at the base of seedlings, while some are weeding and spraying pesticides to control pests and diseases. Not only men, rural women too are playing an equal role in tending vegetables and producing seedlings.

Local growers said that if vegetables can be brought to the market before the usual time, a profit of double to as much as three times can be made.

Keeping this profit in mind, there has been a rush of large-scale commercial cultivation of early winter vegetables in Tangail over the last few years. In particular, as the char areas of the Jamuna and Dhaleshwari and the fertile soil of the hilly areas are very suitable for early vegetable cultivation, the extent of cultivation in the district is increasing every year. After meeting local demand, vegetables of this region are going by truck every day to the capital Dhaka and various divisional and district towns of the country.

Raihan Kazi, a farmer of Darihasil village in Madhupur upazila, is now busy tending his cauliflower field. His land has already started to fill with green. Row after row of cauliflower of the Captain and Winner varieties adorn his 70 decimals of land.

He told BSS that he has planted 16 thousand cauliflower seedlings of the Captain and Winner varieties on 70 decimals of land. A little over Tk 1 lakh has been spent so far. He will be able to sell the cauliflower after about two months. If the yield is good and he can sell at a fair price, he hopes for a profit of Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 3 lakh excluding costs.

He further said the market price of summer vegetables was good, but the yield was not as expected due to adverse weather. So he has quickly started cultivating winter vegetables in the hope of profit.

Rafiqul Islam, a farmer of Phulmalir Chala village in Sagardighi union of Ghatail upazila, told BSS that he cultivated beans and bottle gourd on 40 decimals of land a month ago. The plants have grown quite well, and some plants have already started bearing fruit. He is hoping for a good yield this year. He will profit if he can sell at a fair price.

Madhupur Upazila Agriculture Officer Momtaz Begum told BSS that the early variety of cauliflower is as delicious as it also has herbal qualities.

She said this cultivation has been expanded this time through field demonstrations on 2 hectares of land in Madhupur upazila with the assistance of the agriculture officer under the incentive scheme. Farmers have been given the necessary fertiliser and assistance from the agriculture department. She expressed the hope that this method will encourage many more farmers of the upazila to cultivate early vegetables in future.

Soyeb Mahmud, additional deputy director of the district Department of Agricultural Extension, told BSS that a target has been set this year to cultivate winter vegetables on 11,450 hectares of land in Tangail. The production target has been set at 2,94,220 tonnes.

He said farmers in some areas have already started cultivating early winter vegetables in the hope of higher profit. However, they will become busy with winter vegetable cultivation in full swing from the coming October. If the weather remains favourable, the target will be achieved and the farmers will also benefit. Alongside this, farmers are also being made aware about producing safe and quality vegetables.