1.5 lakh tonnes winter vegetables to be produced in Narsingdi

About 150,000 tonnes of winter vegetables will be produced in Narsingdi district during the current winter season due to the good climate conditions of the season.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Narsingdi Mohammad Mahabubur Rashid said if the favourable climate condition prevails in the next couple of weeks, the above-mentioned production would be achieved which is expected to break all of its previous records.

He said, some 12,170 hectares of land have been brought under winter vegetable cultivation in six upazilas of the district in the current winter season while 11,995 hectares were in the previous year.

The Deputy Director said, the department encouraged the farmers to cultivate chemical-free organic vegetables and imparted knowledge on the bad effects of using pesticides and chemical fertilisers on vegetable fields and also gave them training on pest management.

He also said the DAE has set a target to cultivate poison-free vegetables on 1,560 hectares of land in the district. The farmers are now producing poison-free vegetables using organic fertiliser instead of chemical fertilizer and poisonous pesticides.

Various kinds of winter vegetables like beans, aubergine, bottle gourd, radish, tomato, cucumber, pointy gourd, pea, okra, spiny gourd, bitter gourd, red amaranth, spinach etc grow plenty in Narsingdi Sadar, Shibpur, Raipura and Belabo upazilas of the district.

Narsingdi district is a vegetable surplus area that usually supplies 30 to 40 per cent of its production to the capital and other districts after meeting the local demands.

A number of poor farmers in different upazilas of the district achieved economic self-reliance through vegetable farming during the last couple of years.