Supply of summer veggies plenty in Rajshahi

Summer vegetables like red amaranth, bottle gourd, spinach, lady’s finger, pointed gourd, bitter gourd, pumpkin and aubergine have appeared abundantly in kitchen markets of the district, benefiting both growers and consumers.

Vegetable farming brings smiles to farmers’ faces here as they are becoming financially solvent by cultivating various types of vegetables, meeting the growing demand of the consumers.

At present, even many of the winter vegetables are being cultivated in the summer season. The farmers are seen showing their interest in vegetable farming as they have been gaining more profit over the last couple of years.

Farmers are passing busy days with vegetable farming in the current Kharif-1 season and they are happy with their good yields with less irrigation water following sufficient rains.

Varieties of vegetables are available in the local markets around the year because of their regular farming along with other seasonal fruits and crops.

Mozammel Haque, 37, farmer of Palpur village under Godagari upazila, said he earned Tk 20,000 by selling red amaranth from one bigha of land after sowing its seed hardly 20 days back at a cost of Tk 12,000.

“We are very much happy with vegetable farming because we get good yield with a fair market price within a short time,” he said.

Abdul Bari, 42, another farmer from the Mollapara area, said not only red amaranth but also many other short-duration vegetables are being produced here.

He said farmers in the vast Barind tract are growing aubergine by covering the soil with polythene sheets with a view to saving the plants from being damaged by rainwater. Aubergine is generally a winter vegetable but the growers here are farming it in the summer.

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has set a target to produce around 11.61 lakh tonnes of summer vegetables from 64,103 hectares of land in all eight districts under the division during the current Kharif-1 season.

Shamsul Wadud, additional director of the DAE, said the Rajshahi division has been thought to be the country’s most prospective vegetable-producing region.