Farmers in Bhola have made a mark by growing pesticide-free vegetables for the first time. With few attacks from disease and pests, they are getting more produce at lower cost, and strong demand for pesticide-free vegetables is bringing them higher prices.

In Char Madras union of Bhola's Charfasson upazila, more than 500 farmers have for the first time grown pesticide-free cauliflower, cabbage, beans, bitter gourd, tomatoes, aubergines and other winter vegetables on 100 acres under an environment-friendly safe vegetable production project. They have now begun harvesting and selling in the market.

Farmers Md Munaf, Omar Faruk and Md Aktar said they used to grow winter vegetables with pesticides. This year, with the agriculture department's help, they grew cauliflower, cabbage, bitter gourd, tomatoes and yardlong beans on 2 acres at a cost of about Tk 1 lakh. With fewer disease and pest attacks, costs were much lower and the yield much higher.

Farmers Md Yousuf and Bellal Hossain said: "Because our vegetables are pesticide-free, demand from buyers is much higher and we get better prices than for other vegetables in the market. We are making good profits. Wholesalers also come straight to the fields to buy them, paying good prices and sending them to different districts."

Bikash Das, sub-assistant agriculture officer of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said he visits fields across Char Madras every day from morning to afternoon and advises farmers constantly on getting good yields.

Md Omar Faruk, an officer of the DAE in Charfasson upazila, said the department had given training and technical support to more than 500 farmers to make Char Madras an IPM model union, which is why farmers grew pesticide-free vegetables. They are profiting far more than before, and seeing their success, many others want to grow vegetables this way.

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