HABIGANJ, Nov 14: Cultivation of summer season vegetables by using modern methods has been gaining popularity among the farmers of Sylhet region.
Chairman of Horticulture Department of Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU) Prof Dr Md Shahidul Islam has been working on it under a special project styled 'Productivity enhancement of promising vegetable varieties during the winter and summer in Sylhet region'.
"I have already made a profit of Tk 0.2 million from a sale of summer season tomato in July and Tk 30,000 more would be earned in weeks", said Abdul Mukit of village Chousatpur under Nabiganj upazila.
The farmer said, "I had spent about Tk 36,000 for the field of 3,000 tomato plants of BARI-4 variety. I am cultivating bottle gourd also and will expand it next year."
Another grower Mukit said, "Shahidul Islam had shown me the way for grafted plants."
He said the grafted saplings are stronger and resistant to adverse weather. It gives good production for more days.
Sanjib Ali of village Bholtoil under Bahubal upazila cultivated SAU-1 bean on 35 decimals of land and earned Tk 128,000. The cultivator said he expects Tk 7000 more within a couple of weeks.
Imran Hossain Mehraj of village Paniumda said he earned Tk 20,000 from farming summer season tomato on three decimals of land.
He said he expects to make a profit of Tk 5,000 more.
The grower said he faced some trouble during the recent flood. That time a good number of plants had died or affected.
SAU bean-1 and SAU bean-2, summer season beans, both are invented by Prof Mr Islam and his research team.
A good number of cultivators of Nabiganj and Bahubal upazilas of Habiganj and Komolganj of Moulvibazar district are farming the summer season bean for its quality and better yield, said Shahidul Islam.
He informed by grafting tomato and brinjal with the wild Solanum some common diseases can be overcome. It ensured quality of the produce. Grafted tomato can have increased yield by 40 per cent to 60 per cent than the non-grafted ones.
