Fruit-vegetable mixed farming boosts Rajshahi’s economic prospect

The fruit-vegetable combined farming method is infusing dynamism into the local economy as it opened up a new horizon in the field of agriculture in the region, including its vast Barind tract.

Many farmers adopted the modern method because they are making additional income from the same land in less time benefiting the traders and consumers in many ways.

Varieties of fruits and vegetables, including guava, lemon, cucumber, aubergine, papaya, radish, bean, cauliflower, cabbage, red spinach, chilli, pointed gourd, white gourd and bitter gourd are being intercropped with orange, malta and dragon fruit.

Engineer Sarwar Jahan, an agriculture entrepreneur of Huzripara village in Paba Upazila, has built a malta orchard on nine bighas of land in 2020 and cultivated early winter varieties of cauliflower, cabbage and green chilli on the same land this season.

He has been selling those for the last couple of weeks. Around ten days back, he sold only chilli worth around Tk 45,000, with malta valued at around Tk 60,000.

“I’m also getting a lucrative price of cauliflower and cabbage,” Sarwar Jahan said, adding he has more others of the high-value crops on the land.

He also has a plan of transplanting seedlings of pumpkin and cucumber after harvesting the cauliflower and cabbage.

Mofakkar Hossain, a madrasa teacher, has cultivated cauliflower and cabbage on his dragon orchard on three-bigha of land at Puthiyapara village under the same upazila.

Hossain said he gained success in both dragon fruit and vegetable farming commercially and that has brought economic emancipation to his life.