Commercial bean farming profits Rajshahi farmers

Farming of beans, one of the delicious vegetables, has been gaining popularity everywhere in Rajshahi region including its vast Barind tract for the last couple of years as a result of the rising number of commercial farmers of the cash crop.

Growers are seen getting lucrative prices of the newly harvested vegetable apart from various other winter vegetables making the consumers in general also happy at present.

Piarul Islam, a farmer of Dharampur village under Godagari Upazila, has become successful in bean farming which has made him solvent.

"I had earned a profit of around Tk 60,000 after cultivating the vegetable on ten katha of land last year," he said with a smiling face.

He has cultivated the vegetable on one bigha of land by setting up stages made of bamboo sticks this season and has been selling the crop for the last couple of weeks at a lucrative price.

Islam said farmers spend around Tk 35,000 to 40,000 for cultivating beans on one bigha of land and get yields of 150 to 200 maunds per bigha on average.

He mentioned that many of the farmers have also become financially solvent through commercial farming of summer beans in the region for the last couple of years.

Babul Akter, 56, another farmer of Purakhali village, has cultivated the crop on 12 katha of land this year after getting success on four katha last year.

In previous times, people had to cultivate vegetable on homesteads and rooftops only in winter seasons but at present, the cash crop is being cultivated in both summer and winter seasons on farming fields commercially to meet the gradually mounting demands.

Ahad Ali, a farmer of Kantapasha village, said that he cultivated beans on six bighas of land this year.

"After obtaining my master's degree, I joined a school. At the same time I started bean cultivation as it is very profitable," he said.

Abdul Mazid, 35, a farmer of Soipara village under Mohanpur upazila in the district, has already sold beans valued at around Tk 65,000 from his farming field in the current season. He has become delighted with the good yield and lucrative market prices of the vegetable.

Mazid has cultivated the vegetable on around one bigha of land commercially. Each kilogram of the vegetable is being sold at Tk 40-45 from his farming field directly at present while it is being sold at Tk 60-70 in retail markets.

He's hoping to sell beans worth over Tk two lakh from his field this season.

Sub Assistant Agriculture Officer Atanu Sarker said many people are seen cultivating the vegetables and Agri officials are extending technological and inspirational support to the grassroots farmers for boosting bean production.

Jahangir Alam Khan, the project coordinator of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), said the farmers are becoming habituated to cultivating beans on homesteads, demarcating lands of paddy fields and other catchment areas as they are earning money regularly.

Marginal farmers and the poor people in the region are mostly engaged in this venture by making the best use of spaces around their homes over the last couple of years.

Jahangir Khan said the farmers are now not dependent on selling their cash crops in nearby hats and Bazar because the wholesalers are seen purchasing all the seasonal vegetables from the farming fields directly.

Large-scale promotion of homestead gardening is being judged as an effective means of making the villagers self-reliant as they are getting regular cash crops together with meeting up the nutritional demands.