Summer tomato cultivation continues

Farmers of Dinajpur district are passing busy time now tending to the fields by cultivating early summer tomatoes on the same land after harvesting potato and mustard crops by preparing sheds with bamboo and polythene.

Additional Director of Dinajpur Regional Agriculture Department Pradeep Kumar Guha said the unemployed youths are interested to cultivate the varieties of summer tomatoes as per the demand of the customers during the summer season.

The farmers have started summer tomato cultivation from the 15th Magh of Bengali month and still going on. The yield will be available from the 15th Choitro of Bengali month.

Last year, many youths became self-reliant in cultivating summer tomatoes in the district. As a result, the interest in summer tomato cultivation has increased. If the weather is favourable, the district will have a bumper production of summer tomato this year, he added.

Farmers can easily send the summer tomato to any part of the country, due to the good communication system. So farmers and traders will benefit from this, he also said.

District Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Deputy Director Nuruzzaman Miah, said a total of 1,142 hectares of land under summer tomato seedlings have been planted in the district this year.

DAE office sources said farmers of the Dinajpur Sadar, Chirirbandar, Biral and other upazilas have planted tomato seedlings in their fields. They have taken necessary measures to prevent the trees from falling down due to storms and rains with bamboo, twine and polythene.

In various upazilas, including Sadar, Chirirbandar and Biral, summer Vikoma, Provenship, Rani, Raja Kumar and Bipul plus early varieties of summer tomatoes are widely cultivated in the area. But this year, the most cultivation is Bipul Plus variety of tomato has been cultivated, due

to the variety of Bipul tomato yield is very high, he said.

Tomato growers of the district are dreaming of a bumper crop of tomatoes this summer as the weather is favourable and there is no shortage of fertilizers and pesticides.

Mozammel Haque, 35, an unemployed educated youth in Enayetpur village of Biral upazila, said that I have planted Bipul plus tomato seedlings on 40 decimals of land. Flowers have started to appear on the trees and I am passing a busy time tending tomato plants.

He also said that it will cost Tk 35,000 to 40,000 to cultivate tomatoes. Haque hoped to sell tomatoes worth Tk 260,000 and a handsome amount will be a profit.