Vegetable farmers find success in sack-sowing method

The farmers of Madaripur have successfully cultivated vegetables planting seeds in fertiliser-filled sacks to help them grow faster.

Farmer Montosh Biswas of the district’s Kalkini upazila has become a role model to others after success in using the sack plantation method in vegetable farming.

More farmers in the district are becoming interested to vegetable farming using this method. Farmers can make use of unused waterlogged lands to cultivate vegetables on floating bamboo platforms. Using this method farmers get more profit since less infestation leads to a bumper harvest.

The government has taken various incentives to expand vegetable cultivation in the district.

Farmers have been motivated by the fact that the vegetables, produced using this method, are in good demand in the market.

Farmer Montosh Biswas of Gopalpur union experimentally cultivated vegetables on waterlogged lands that cannot be used to produce other crops. He found success in cultivating vegetables such as bottle gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd and wax gourd using the bagging method.

Montosh told The Business Post that Kalkini Upazila Agriculture office provided him with basic equipment at the beginning to start his cultivation.

“My initial cost was about Tk 7,000-8,000, and I have already sold vegetables worth Tk 15,000-16,000. I expect to sell vegetables worth Tk 25,000-30,000 more,” he said.

Cultivation method using the bagging system

At first, 30 kg of soil mixed with bio-fertilisers, manure and chemical fertilisers are poured into a sack up to about three feet tall.

After letting it set for a while vegetable seeds are planted in it. Various vegetable seeds including bottle gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd, ridge gourd, wax gourd, malabar spinach, chilli, ginger, garlic, yardlong bean, pumpkin, and papaya can be planted after a few days.

For the vine plant vegetables, a platform of bamboo and rope is built about four to six feet above the sacks where the vegetables can hang freely.

Being inspired by Montosh’s success, many people in the area have taken the initiative to cultivate vegetables using this method.

Iqbal Hossain, a local farmer, said, “I am happy seeing Montosh’s success in vegetable cultivation on unused fallow lands. I also plan to follow his example and cultivate vegetables using this method.”

A local youth Anol Dey said he has been buying vegetables from this farm since they are organically produced and delicious to eat.

Kalkini Upazila Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer Sanjay Baroi said, “We have been proving the equipment needed for cultivating vegetables using the sack method along with necessary advice to the local farmers. It is possible to revolutionise vegetable cultivation using this technique since the farmers can make use of otherwise unused and infertile lands.”

Kalkini Upazila Agriculture Officer Milton Biswas said under the agricultural development scheme, vegetable cultivation using the sack method is being promoted in seven districts.

“Farmer Montosh Biswas has found success in vegetable cultivation on relatively low waterlogged and non-productive fallow lands. We expect more farmers will become interested in this,” he said.

He added that the agriculture office will continue to provide the farmers with advice and other basic equipment needed for cultivating vegetables in the sack method.