Farmers profit by cultivating off-season cauliflower, cabbage

Farmers in Jhenaidah make good profits by cultivating cauliflower and cabbage in summer due to their huge customer demand and high market prices.

Farmers said that cultivation of the vegetables begins in Ashar (June-July) and some 3,500 to 4,000 seedlings can be planted on per bigha of land.

From planting seedlings to harvest it takes over three months and farmers have to invest around Tk 25,000 to 30,000 per bigha while the vegetables yielded from the lands can be sold over Tk 1000, 000, helping them to earn profit by around Tk 70, 000.

Farmer Monirul Islam shared, "This year, despite extreme heat and heavy rainfall, we managed to market our cabbage within 90 days."

On average, farmers yield about five tonnes of cabbage and three tonnes of cauliflower per bigha.

Parvez, a farmer from Lakshmipur village, said seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides cost around Tk 25,000 to 30,000 per bigha.

He said they are making a good profit due to reasonable market prices this year. Moreover, the farmers earned Tk 50,000 to 60,000 profit by selling cabbage per bigha last year.

Wholesale trader Sirajul Islam said that the price of cabbage depends on market demand and size. This year, the size of the cabbages is slightly smaller.

Hence he is buying the cabbage from farmers at Tk 18 to 22 per piece before sending them to Dhaka, he added.

Shashti Chandra Roy, deputy director of Department of Agricultural Extension in Jhenaidah, said a total of 5,429 hectares of land in the district has been brought under cauliflower, cabbage, and other vegetable cultivation.

He hoped that 17.12 metric tonnes of vegetables would be yielded from each hectare of land.
All types of vegetables are cultivated in the off-season due to the high soil of the district. No waterlogging is created in the arable land. He said.

Due to less natural disasters in this district than in other districts, it is possible to cultivate summer vegetables well, the DAE official added.