Vegetable farming brings fortune to thousands in Rangpur region

Expanded cultivation of vegetables on farmlands and homesteads around the year has brought fortune to thousands of farmers and locals in the Rangpur agriculture region in recent years.

Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and NGOs said vegetable farming had become a profitable venture, inspiring farmers to cultivate vegetables on more lands adopting newer cropping patterns and latest technologies.

Additional Director of the DAE’s Rangpur region Agriculturist Bidhu Bhusan Ray said many farmers and local people, including women, have already changed fortune through farming both summer and winter vegetables across the region.

Alongside massive government assistance and easy-term agri-loans, many NGOs supply quality seeds, inputs and technical assistance to farmers to further increase vegetable production during Rabi, Kharif-1 and Kharif-2 seasons round the year.

“After getting repeated bumper production and lucrative market prices every year, farmers are bringing more lands under vegetable farming in the region,” he said.

During the last Rabi season, farmers produced 9,30,870 tonnes of winter vegetables from 39,895 hectares of land against the fixed production target of producing 9,48,360 tonnes of winter vegetables from 38,350 hectares of land in the region.

“Similarly, farmers have brought 26,365 hectares of land, 4,335 hectares more than the fixed production target of 4,07,101 tonnes of summer vegetables from 22,030 hectares of land during this Kharif-1 season in the region,” Ray said.

Farmers have already harvested vegetables on 25,355 hectares of land and produced 4,74,328 tonnes of vegetables during the Kharif-1 season, exceeding the production target by 67,227 tonnes by Thursday in the region where the harvest of the crop continues.

Besides, farmers have cultivated vegetables on 13,895 hectares of land during the current Kharif-2 season in the region, where they brought 11,095 hectares of land under vegetable farming during the Kharif-2 season last year.

“Farmers are expecting to achieve super bumper productions of vegetables during this Kharif-1 and Kharif-2 seasons in Rangpur, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts of the region,” Ray added.

Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid said consumers are getting varieties of vegetables in local markets as farmers cultivating those in all seasons round the year and getting excellent prices.

“Many farmers and commoners are now preparing to cultivate early varieties of vegetables to harvest those during the ‘lean period’ of ‘Aswin’ and ‘Kartik’ months to earn more profits,” he said.

Talking to BSS, farmers Azizul Islam, Abdul Karim, Altaf Hossain and Sekendar Ali of different villages in Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur said they had achieved self-reliance by cultivating vegetables on their farmlands and homesteads.