The lucrative price of cucumber has made farmers smile in Lalmonirhat this year. Farmers are making a very handsome profit from cultivating cucumber in this current season. The yield is also very good as the weather is favourable for them.
Fulgach, Mogalhat of sadar upazila and Boro Kamlabari, Soto Kamlabari, Velabari of Aditmari upazila have turned into the hub of vegetable farming in recent years. Several hundred farmers of this area have changed their socio-economic condition by cultivating various seasonal vegetables.
Their produced vegetables are being marketed to different parts of the country. Every day 6-10 trucks load of cucumber are being sent to Dhaka, Chottogram, and Nimsha bazer of Cumilla. Famers are very busy now harvesting their vegetables.
Talking to the growers and the whole sellers in the area it is learned that they are passing a very busy time marketing this cucumber in many areas of the country.
The demand for cucumber was very high due to Ramadhan and Eid-ul -Fitr. It's a common item for Ifter for every Muslims family. Cucumber is a quarterly vegetable. It takes only 90 days. After plantation within 45 days, farmers can harvest cucumber from the plants.
Akter Hossen (60), a marginal farmer of Boro Kamlabari village under Aditmari upazila said that he has no land of his own. He cultivates others' land. This year he cultivated one acre (3.75 Bighas) taking a lease from other. He took a loan of 60 thousand taka and cultivated cucumber. The yield is very good. He spent Tk 0.15 million (1.5 lakh) and already he sold his produce worth Tk 0.25 million (2.5 lakh) and hoping to earn more Tk 0.3 million-0.4 million (3-4 lakh) from his cucumber fields. He is very much happy as the price is very this year.
Like him Saidul Islam of the same village cultivated 54 decimal lands, Ramjan Ali cultivated 71 decimal of land this year. They are very happy as the price is out of their imagination. Ramjan Ali said this year the market is very high and they are happy. If the hot humidity prevails across the country the demand for cucumber will go up and they will get a good return, he added.
Most of the farmers of this area enjoyed their Eid happily as they had enough money at their hand to celebrate the festival, said one farmer of this village.
Abdur Rajjak a local press worker told the FE that many farmers of this region changed their socio-economic condition through various vegetable farming in recent years. But this year farmers got a handsome return from cucumber before Eid. He said that middlemen are reaping benefit from their produce here. If the government gives support to market the produced crops of the farmers then they will be more benefited, said.
He urged the authority concerned to take necessary steps in this regard to market the crops through the proper channels so that consumers can buy at a fair price otherwise the influence of middlemen and brokers will continue.
When asked, the Deputy Director (DD) of Lalmonirhat Department of Agricultural and Extension (DAE) Mamun Ashraf said that the yield of cucumber is very good as the weather was favorable.
The price is also very high. The farmers of these areas have changed their fate and become self-reliant by cultivating various vegetables, he added.
