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Experts at a function have stressed expanding cultivation of the highly profitable BARI Begun-12 variety of brinjal with a high yield rate to help farmers reap more profits.
They opined this at an event titled 'Transferring production technologies of BARI Begun-12 at farmers' level' held at Lalbagh area of Rangpur city on Saturday afternoon.
The Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Burirhat in Rangpur, of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) organised the event.
Director General of BARI Agriculturist Dr Debasish Sarker attended the occasion as the chief guest with Chief Scientific Officer of RARS of BARI at Burirhat in Rangpur Agriculturist Dr Ashis Kumar Saha in the chair.
Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) of On-Farm Research Division (OFRD) of BARI at Alamnagar in Rangpur Dr Md Al-Amin Hossain Talukder, PSO of OFRD of BARI at Gaibandha Agriculturist Dr Abdullah Al Mahmud, Associate Professor of Carmichael College Md Zahid Hassan Dipu and Assistant Professor of Mirbag College Md Ahsan Habib spoke as special guests.
The speakers said BARI Begun-12 is a high-yielding winter variety of brinjal developed by BARI.
In the Rangpur region, seedlings of this brinjal variety can be transplanted in September in well-drained high land and in October in medium-high land.
Each plant produces 18 to 20 brinjals and the average weight of each edible brinjal is 700 grams to over one kilogram.
The number of seeds is less BARI Begun-12 that is gourd or balloon shaped, green in colour, palatable and this variety is resistant to bacterial wilt disease.
With proper management, the BARI Begun plants give fruits in 80-90 days and the life span is more than 6 months.
Farmer Muhammad Shahjahan said he received information about the production technology of BARI Begun-12 from the RARS at Burirhat, collected saplings and planted them in 15 decimals of the land in the Lalbag area of Rangpur city in September.
"I am impressed with the size, shape, yield and taste of this brinjal. I am selling the brinjal at Tk 40 to Tk 60 per kg to wholesalers and its demand is high among buyers. I hope to harvest 300 to 350 kg of BARI Begun-12 from each decimal of land," he said.
Dr Saha said, "After releasing of BARI Bagun-12 in 2020, its seeds and seedlings and production technology are being provided to farmers through the Horticulture Center of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Rangpur Divisional Agriculture and Rural Development Project and Upazila Agricultural Extension Offices since the 2021-22 and 2022-23 crop seasons."
The chief guest committed to providing all kinds of cooperation in the production of safe BARI Begun-12 in a profitable manner at the farmers' level and emphasized the rapid expansion of this variety and production technology.
