SIRAJGANJ, Dec 25: Vegetable growers in the vast Barind tract are delighted as they have been getting repeated bumper yield over the last few years.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) have jointly supplied quality seeds, incentives and other agri-inputs as well as technical support to thousands of grassroots farmers in the region.
Besides, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) and some local NGOs have also disbursed easy-term agriculture loans among the farmers to make the winter vegetable farming programme a success.
The agriculture related departments, organisations and institutions have also taken adequate steps to assist the framers to boost winter vegetables production.
In a recent visit to different kitchen markets across the area this correspondent found that varieties of winter vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, pumpkin, radish, tomato, cucumber, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, bean, snake gourd, ridge gourd, bottle gourd, red spinach and spinach have the local markets.
Cultivators are also happy over the market rate.
Aiming to make some Tk 300 million profit, the vegetable traders transport massive quantities of vegetables to capital city and other parts of the country.
Deputy director of DAE, Natore, Rafiqul Islam said a good number of farmers in the region are now involved in commercial cultivation of winter vegetables.
Our correspondent from Sylhet adds: Some 82,025 hectares of land have been brought under the farming of winter vegetables in Sylhet division this season.
A good number of farmers said bottle gourd, sweet gourd, radish, bean, tomato, cucumber, spinach, pumpkin, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal and taro are the most popular vegetable items in the division.
An official at the DAE said most of the farmers are now busy on their fields. Some of them take care of their vegetable lands and some harvest their produce.
Besides, potato has so far been cultivated on 7,183 hectares of land in the division while sweet potato on 1,270 hectares, wheat on 1,250 hectares, maize on 639 hectares, mustard on 7,013 hectares, coriander on 2,752 hectares, chilli on 2,804 hectares, mashkalai on 1,300 hectares, French bean on 3,320 hectares and lentil on 213 hectares of land. In addition to these, onion has been cultivated on 460 hectares and garlic on 300 hectares of land.
The DAE official said a good number of farmers are involved in the vegetable farming in barren land in new areas of Balaganj, Osmaninagar, Golapganj, Biswanath, Gowainghat, Jaintapur, Beanibazar and Kanaighat.
He said commercial vegetables cultivation has brought significant change in the lives of grassroots farmers in the areas.
Additional Director of DAE, Sylhet, Md Altabur Rahman said commercial cultivation of vegetable is on rise in the division.
However, in addition to the ongoing projects of the DAE, the special project 'Raising crop intensity in Sylhet division' has been contributing a lot in motivating and engaging farmers with modern methods of agriculture and high-value crops in the region, said the official. The special project is set to end this fiscal, he added.