Rangpur on top in veggie production

Rangpur has emerged as the top district in vegetable production in the last fiscal overtaking Bogura.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), there are 20.80 lakh metric tons of vegetables produced in Rangpur in Fiscal Year 2020-21 which is 6.56 per cent of the total vegetables grown across the country.

Potato is the prime crop in Rangpur producing 11. 66 lakh metric tons followed by radish 2.30 lakh metric tons, eggplant 1.05 lakh metric tons, cabbage 0.63 lakh metric tons and cauliflower 0.51 lakh metric tons.

With a volume of 16.85 lakh metric tons, Bogura topped the list in FY20 while Rangpur stood second with 16.75 lakh metric tons. Production in Rangpur went up by 4.10 lakh metric tons in FY21.

On the other hand, vegetable production in Bogura decreased by 2.12 lakh metric tons in FY21 and slipped two notches down to third position while Dinajpur came second from third by increasing production of 3.01 lakh metric tons.

The production volume of Rangpur is bigger than the combined vegetable production of 13 districts which are at the bottom of the list.

The 13 districts together accounted for 19.38 lakh metric tons of vegetables – some 1.44 lakh metric tons short of the production volume of the north-western district.

The top production is followed by Dinajpur 15.33 lakh metric tons, Bogura 14.74 lakh metric tons, Rajshahi 14.26 lakh metric tons, Munshiganj 14.01 lakh metric tons, Jhenaidah 12.47 lakh metric tons, Chattogram 10.61 lakh metric tons, Joypurhat 10.41 lakh metric tons, Thakurgaon 10.15 lakh metric tons and Jamalpur 8.26 lakh metric tons.

The 10 districts produce 36.93 per cent of total vegetable production while top five districts hold 20.55 per cent.

The country produced 316. 89 lakh metric tons of vegetables in FY21.

Per person vegetable production in Rangpur is 694 kilogramme while per hectare yield is over 30 metric tons.

A total of 0.69 lakh hectares of land came under vegetable cultivation in Rangpur against its administrative area of 2400.56 square kilometres.

However, the country’s average per hectare production is 22.10 metric tons.

“Intensive care, environmental compatibility over the last few years, advantage of highland and use of vermicompost are aiding Rangpur to top the list,” said Md Obaidur Rahman Mondal, DAE deputy director of the district.

“Per hectare yield is high. Besides, the district produces safe vegetables because of the use of vermicompost in around 50 per cent land, and most of the seeds are hybrid.”

Next to Rangpur, Dinajpur comes second in terms of vegetable production. Potato is also the top vegetable of the district with 11. 55 lakh metric tons of production followed by tomato 0.88 lakh metric tons, cabbage 0.65 lakh metric tons, carrot 0.54 lakh metric tons and cauliflower 0.49 lakh metric tons.

Likewise, Bogura ranks third with 11.17 lakh metric tons of potato production followed by radish 0.59 lakh metric tons, eggplant 0.49 lakh metric tons, cauliflower 0.27 lakh metric tons and tomato 0.24 lakh metric tons.

Rajshahi secures fourth position, with 9.75 lakh metric tons of potato yield followed by tomato 0.60 lakh metric tons, radish 0.52 lakh metric tons, eggplant 0.49 lakh metric tons and bottle gourd 0.45 lakh metric tons.

Munshiganj stands fifth based on potato with 12. 63 lakh metric tons of yield followed by bottle gourd 0.20 lakh metric tons, pumpkin 0.17 lakh metric tons, radish 0.12 lakh metric tons and tomato 0.11 lakh metric tons.

Potato makes the difference

The top five vegetable producing districts are also the top producer of potato. Potato marks the difference with other districts in terms of vegetable production.

Potato consists of 90.15 per cent of vegetable produce in Munshiganj, 75.81 per cent in Bogura, 75.33 per cent in Dinajpur, 70.50 per cent in Rangpur and 68.35 per cent in Rajshahi.

Together these five districts hold 59.77 lakh metric tons of potato which is 53.28 per cent of total potato production of the country.

In last fiscal, the country had 112. 26 lakh metric tons of potato yield. The top 10 vegetable-producing districts altogether had 77.71 lakh metric tons of potato which is 69.22 per cent of total production.

Gopalganj, least producer

The district of Gopalganj produced only 0.77 lakh metric tons of vegetables in FY21. Per hectare yield is 17 metric tons and per person vegetable production is 56.55 Kilogrammes.

A total of 0.45 lakh hectares of land were used in vegetable cultivation against 1489.92 square-kilometre administrative area under the district.

“The district mostly has low-lying areas. It produces winter vegetables with a very good yielding rate. In rainy season, some top land and pond boundaries are earmarked for vegetable farming,” Arabinda Kumar Roy, deputy director of DAE, Gopalganj, told The Business Post.

“Almost all the seeds here are hybrid,” he added.

From the bottom Gopalganj is followed by Rangamati with 0.97 lakh metric tons, Madaripur 1.04 lakh metric tons, Norail 1.12 lakh metric tons, Magura 1. 29 lakh metric tons, Khagrachhari 1.40 lakh metric tons, Barguna 1.43 lakh metric tons, Patuakhali 1.64 lakh metric tons, Rajbari 1.85 lakh metric tons and Pirojpur 1.85 lakh metric tons.

All these districts are in the southern part of the country with huge low-lying land areas except Khagrachhari with hilly land.

The 10 districts from the bottom together produce only 4.21 per cent of national vegetable production.

Former agriculture secretary Anwar Faruk said: “Some districts have low land and produce a low amount of vegetables. But the southern districts are adopting various cultivation methods including floating gardening.”

“Marketing as well as transportation infrastructure is important to meet nutritional demand of people across the country as vegetables are most valuable in terms of nutrition. The inhabitants of the districts with low production capacity should have access to vegetables produced in other parts of the country,” he added.

Reshuffling of vegetables producing chart

Pabna and Jashore slid from the list of top 10 vegetable-producing districts while Jamalpur and Jhenaidah occupied place in the list.

Jhenaidah has shown tremendous performance, increased production threefold – some 12.46 lakh metric tons in FY 2020-21. However, 4.82 lakh metric tons of vegetables were produced in the district year ago.

This performance helped the district to occupy the sixth position in the last fiscal.

Jamalpur secured 10th position producing 8.26 lakh metric tons of vegetables in FY21 which is 1.70-lakh metric ton more than what was produced in FY20. In FY20, 6.56 lakh metric tons of vegetables were produced in the district.

Pabna produced 8.06 lakh metric tons in Fiscal Year 2020-21 which is 0.45 lakh metric tons more than the production in the previous fiscal that witnessed 7.61 lakh metric tons. However the district slipped from the 10th position.

Jashore grew 7.06 lakh metric tons in FY21 and 8.29 lakh metric tons in FY20. Production dropped by 1.23 lakh metric tons in the district that slipped from the top 10 list this year.

Besides, Munshiganj slipped by two steps to fifth position in FY21 while Rajshahi ranked fourth, one step up from the previous year.