Farmer Mohiuddin Mia of Mohammadpur village in Brahmanbaria Sadar upazila has seen good times return through vegetable farming. He has built a vegetable farm on 25 bighas of land, and its produce is now supplied to various markets in the district and to neighbouring districts.

Mohiuddin Mia said he began growing vegetables on 5 bighas in 2008 jointly with his friend Jamal Mia from the same village. They had little capital at first, so the two friends took a Tk 30,000 loan from a local samity to start farming the 5 bighas.

After growing vegetables jointly with Jamal Mia for several years, in 2019 Mohiuddin Mia farmed vegetables on a total of 25 bighas, his own land plus land rented from village farmers. Twenty-five workers now work on his farm.

M A Shahed, a resident of Mohammadpur village, said: "We used to rent out land for two to two and a half thousand taka a bigha a year. Now we rent it out for vegetable farming at Tk 7,000 a bigha a year."

Mohiuddin Mia said he is now growing tomatoes, papaya, bottle gourd, cauliflower, bitter gourd, broccoli, ridge gourd, snake gourd and capsicum. "Last year I spent Tk 18 lakh building a house at home, and I married off my eldest daughter," he added.

He said young people in the area have been inspired by their vegetable farm, and 12 more young men in the village have already started growing vegetables. If unemployed youths set aside thoughts of government jobs or going abroad and start growing vegetables after training from Youth Development or elsewhere, the country will have no unemployment problem, he said.

Sadar upazila agriculture officer Munshi Tofayel Hossain said vegetables are being grown on 650 hectares in the upazila this year. Farmers are profiting well from vegetables and becoming more interested day by day. He said he regularly supervises Mohiuddin Mia's farm in Mohammadpur and other vegetable farms, which use organic fertiliser. Every winter, vegetables grown in Brahmanbaria meet the district's needs and are also supplied to other districts.

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.