Farmers busy growing early winter vegetables

Farmers in the Rajshahi district are busy cultivating early winter vegetables for getting lucrative profit as the earlier they can market their produce, the more profit they can earn.

Early winter cabbage, brinjal, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, bean, radish, snake bean, carrot, cauliflower, spinach, red spinach, water spinach, and Malabar spinach, grow well in the district. The cultivators make extra profit from the product every season.

The vegetables will start appearing in the market by mid-October to November, growers said.

According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the harvesting was scheduled to start on October 15. However, to obtain more profit, farmers of the district began harvesting winter vegetables a while back.

The DAE sources said farmers already cultivated different kinds of winter vegetables on 731 hectares of land, and the production will exceed the target around mid-October.

Farmers opted for the early cultivation of winter vegetables a few years back because of their high return. They said that around 18,114 hectares of land were bought under winter vegetable cultivation in the district last year.

Farmers of the district are cultivating brinjal on 130 hectares of land, cauliflower on 25 hectares, cabbage on 13 hectares, radish on 80 hectares, bottle gourd on 35 hectares, beans on 72 hectares, bean on 72 hectares, snake bean on 7 hectares, cucumber on 1 hectare, bitter gourd on 5 hectares, okra on 10 hectares, pumpkin on 21 hectares, different varieties of spinach on 100 hectares and tomato on 230 hectares of land along the vast Barind tract.

Saddam Hossain, a farmer of the Madhupur area of Paba upazila, told The Business Post that the first shipment of winter vegetables has the greatest demand and highest prices in the winter season among the consumers, that is why farmers are more interested in growing early vegetables.

“I have been cultivating winter vegetables for the last couple of years. I have cultivated cauliflower on my two bighas of land this season. If I can sell these to the local wholesalers soon, I can earn a good profit,” he said.

He further said that farmers who had cultivated on lowlands might face a loss this season as their crops went underwater and got ruined.

Yamin Hossain, another farmer of the upazila, told The Business Post that his cropland is situated in the low-lying part of the district, and his seedbeds went underwater due to the consistent rainfall.

“While other farmers are eyeing profit from their production, I, along with other farmers who grow their vegetables of lowlands, are going to face a loss this season,” said Yamin.

KJM Abdul Awal, deputy director of Rajshahi DAE, told The Business Post, “We encourage farmers to go for crop diversification without depending merely on paddy cultivation. Responding to our call, farmers are inclining towards early winter vegetable cultivation as it brings higher profit to them.”

“Yes, farmers cultivating on low-lying land are facing damage, but the volume of the loss in comparison to the profit they make is insignificant,” he said.