Photo: Collected
With favourable weather, the advice of the agriculture department, modern technology and intensive care, early winter vegetables have turned the vast fields of Tangail green right at the start of Ashwin. Although winter is still more than three months away, the district’s farmers are passing a 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 winter vegetables including radish, cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, local bottle gourd, carrot and bean can already be seen in field after field.
In particular, the lands of Tangail’s hilly areas Madhupur, Ghatail, Dhanbari and Sakhipur, known for vegetable cultivation, and of the char areas of the Jamuna and Dhaleshwari basins are now filled with vegetables of various varieties. As the weather is favourable, growers are raising crops successfully. Farmers are becoming more interested than before in the hope of getting good prices for new winter vegetables.
A visit to different upazilas of the district found row upon row of leafy and other vegetables cultivated across vast fields. Cultivation of various winter vegetables including radish, cauliflower, cabbage, bean, 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 start of the season, farmers are getting good prices in the market. The men and women farmers of this region are working hard from dawn to dusk in the hope of higher yields and the desired profit. Some are preparing land to plant new seedlings, some are putting soil at the base of seedlings, and some are busy weeding and spraying pesticides to control pests and diseases. Not only men, the women of the villages are also playing an equal role in tending vegetables and producing seedlings.
Local vegetable growers said a profit of double to as much as three times can be made if vegetables can be brought to market ahead of the normal time.
With this profit in mind, there has been a rush of commercial, large-scale early winter vegetable cultivation in Tangail over the last few years. In particular, as the fertile soil of the char areas of the Jamuna and Dhaleshwari rivers and of the hilly areas is very suitable for early vegetable cultivation, the area under cultivation in the district is increasing every year. After meeting local demand, vegetables of this region go by truck every day to different divisional and district towns of the country, including the capital Dhaka.
Raihan Kazi, a farmer of Darihasil village in Madhupur upazila, is now busy tending his cauliflower field. His land has already begun to fill with green. Rows of cauliflower of the Captain and Winner varieties adorn his 70 decimals of land.
He told BSS he has planted 16,000 cauliflower seedlings of the Captain and Winner varieties on 70 decimals of land. The cost so far has been a little over Tk 1 lakh. He will be able to start selling 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 to 3 lakh after deducting costs.
He further said the market price of summer vegetables was good, but the yield was not as expected in adverse weather. So he has quickly started winter vegetable cultivation in the hope of profit.
Rafiqul Islam, a farmer of Phulmalir Chala village in Sagardighi union of Ghatail upazila, told BSS he cultivated bean 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 gain if he can sell at a fair price.
Madhupur Upazila Agriculture Officer Momtaz Begum told BSS that early varieties of cauliflower are as tasty as they are rich in medicinal properties.
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 through incentives. 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 take up early vegetable cultivation in future.
Soeb Mahmud, additional deputy director of the district Department of Agricultural Extension, told BSS a target has been set to cultivate winter vegetables on 11,450 hectares of land in Tangail this year. 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, farmers will become busy with winter vegetable cultivation in full swing from October. If the weather remains favourable, the target will be achieved and farmers will also gain. Alongside this, farmers are also being made aware about producing safe and quality vegetables.
