Professor Dr Harun-or-Rashid, head of the Department of Horticulture at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), and his team are working to develop local varieties of savoy cabbage, purple broccoli and zucchini (squash) as colourful winter vegetables.

Professor Harun-or-Rashid has researched savoy cabbage and purple broccoli, with Fatema Tuz Zohura as research fellow. He and postgraduate student Anisha Nur Mumu have studied 10 zucchini varieties of different colours.

Purple broccoli is being selected as a variety suitable for cultivation in Bangladesh for the first time. It was collected from England and grows faster than green broccoli. It is tasty and nutritious, and its purple colour means it is rich in antioxidants, especially anthocyanins, with cancer-fighting compounds.

Savoy cabbage from France is an entirely new winter vegetable in Bangladesh, and the team has grown it successfully. Ordinary cabbage leaves become tough at maturity, but savoy leaves are crisp, so it can be eaten raw or cooked and used in burgers and sandwiches.

A red cabbage variety is also being grown in the field. Being coloured, it is more nutritious than green cabbage. It was grown with mulching, conserving water and raising yields.

Squash, known as zucchini in Italy, is used in pizza and pasta in Europe. Research shows it grows and develops very well in Bangladesh's weather. Green zucchini is most common in markets, but the team has produced black, yellow, dark green and light green zucchini in different shapes. It can be harvested in just 55 days.

The team has applied to the Ministry of Science and Technology for funding, aiming to select coloured zucchini with high nutrition and disease resistance, develop varieties and spread them to farmers.

Source: Jagonews24 (reported by Asif Iqbal). First published in Bengali on The Agro News.