The agriculture minister deserves thanks for her innovative efforts in organising a three-day national vegetable fair at Khamarbari in Dhaka. The expo has brought to the fore huge potential of vegetable production in the country. It was for the second time that the agriculture ministry organised the three-day fair. This year, 48 organisations, including nine public and 39 private horticultural farms, took part in the fair.Â
Speaking at the function, the agriculture minister criticised the anti-Genetically Modified (GM) food campaigners and said the government has decided in time to promote GM foods in the country. She said it is now difficult to feed a huge growing population with traditional farming. She claimed that growing vegetables is more profitable than cultivation of cereals.
It is true that the country's policymakers did never accord due importance to vegetable cultivation as they did in case of paddy. Huge land areas either on homesteads or high lands are remaining fallow as the growers do not get the required technical support from the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in vegetable farming. Field workers of the DAE, having received adequate knowledge on vegetable farming, almost remain idle with no strict monitoring of the work at the field level. The agriculture ministry will do a great job if it can organise such exhibitions at union parishad (UP) level on a regular basis. Such expo can highlight do's and don'ts in vegetable farming in presence of farmers, particularly rural women. Â Â Â
Agricultural experts say use of advanced horticulture technology is crucial for meeting nutritional demands of the growing population in the country. According to them, the country's per capita vegetable intake was around 50 grams per day in 2015 as against FAO recommended 300 grams a day. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, vegetables are being cultivated on 7.93 million hectares of land, which covers only 2.63 per cent of the total arable land in the country.
The DAE has a great role to play in motivating farmers on proper use of pesticides as they are not aware when to harvest their crops or vegetables. Untimely harvesting poses serious health hazards to consumers. Awareness building is also crucial for consumers because valuable nutrients get lost in cooking of vegetables due to faulty cooking practices.
On the other hand, vegetable farmers are often deprived of just prices for their produces as middlemen grab major profits. In fact, Bangladesh can achieve the top position in vegetable production in the world if it can advance with proper research and planning. Presently, the country ranks fourth in vegetable production. Many of the country's fruits, including guava of Patiya in Chittagong, could be exported abroad if production capacity is improved through research.Â
In fact, Bangladesh today needs safe harvest of vegetables in short time to save crops from natural calamities. The country is self-sufficient in rice production, but not in pulse and some other crops. Â Bangladesh can do it as it did in the case of rice. The country has been producing enough rice to feed the entire population. This is an amazing feat by any definition. Â It is proper planning, relentless research by our agro-scientists, application of scientific knowledge, and timely financial and logistics support from the ministry of agriculture that will make it possible to reap bumper harvest of vegetables. Vegetables can not only meet the nation's nutritional needs but also fetch precious foreign exchange from its exports.
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Let there be vegetable fairs in Ups
Rahman Jahangir | Published: January 10, 2017 19:46:11 | Updated: October 22, 2017 19:51:16
Let there be vegetable fairs in Ups
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