Farmers in the remote char areas of Bhola are turning to capsicum, a profitable crop, this year. They say they switched because they were not making much profit from other vegetables due to climate change. According to them, capsicum fields suffer few pest attacks, so the crop needs little labour, and it earns more at low cost.

Farmers on the remote Majher Char in Kachia union of Bhola Sadar upazila and on Madanpur char in Daulatkhan upazila said they grow various vegetables on the chars every year. But because of climate change, untimely rain and tidal water invade their fields, and most of the time they count losses rather than profits. So this year most farmers turned to capsicum to recover from their losses.

Farmers Md Monir Hossain and Md Yusuf of Majher Char and Md Akbar and Ismail Hossain of Madanpur char said they used to grow various vegetables on a large scale on the chars. But because of damage from tidal water, salt water and rainwater, they did not make much profit. So this year they grew capsicum, following other farmers on the char. They are happy that capsicum has few disease and pest attacks and has given a large yield at low cost and with little labour. So far each of them has sold capsicum worth Tk 4 to 5 lakh.

They said it is almost impossible to recover when a vegetable crop fails, but it is easier to recover even if there is a loss on capsicum. That is why farmers on Majher Char and Madanpur char are turning to it. Where 100 to 150 farmers grew capsicum on the two chars before, 800 to 900 farmers have grown it this year.

Hasan Warisul Kabir, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Bhola, said farmers on the chars are increasingly turning to capsicum because of its high demand and price in the market, which has increased cultivation on the two chars. This year capsicum has been grown on about 100 acres in the district. As farmers have succeeded with capsicum this year, he expects the area under the crop to grow three to four times in future.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.