Moyej Uddin, 55, a farmer in Seet Alokdihi village of Khansama upazila in Dinajpur, has grown the hybrid Early-45 summer bean on 22 decimals of land this kharif-2 season, under a sustainable agriculture development project run with the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in the Dinajpur region. On Wednesday (8 October) his trellises were full of flowers and young pods, and he was busy tending, picking and selling.
He has spent about Tk 28,000 to 30,000 on the plot so far. If the weather holds and yields continue as they are, he expects to sell beans worth about Tk 75,000 to 80,000. He turned to summer beans looking for a profitable alternative to his usual crops, he said, and plans to grow the variety on more land.
Seeing his crop, Mohammad Kashem Ali and several other farmers in the area have planted beans this season, and interest in summer beans and other alternative vegetables is growing locally.
Sub-assistant agriculture officer Md Mominul Bin Amin said Moyej Uddin has been advised on regular care and disease management, and that Early-45 is suited to summer growing, which gives farmers a chance of a good yield. Upazila agriculture officer Yasmin Akter said projects are encouraging farmers to adopt improved varieties and new technology to diversify crops by season and earn more from the same land.
Md Afzal Hossain, deputy director of the DAE in Dinajpur, told BSS that the department has supplied Early-45 seed in all 13 upazilas of the district this year. Farmers who grew it on a trial basis last year made good profits, he said; the beans taste good and are in demand, so he expects the area to grow further.
The report is from BSS in Dinajpur.
Photo: Fanghong / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0); an illustrative picture of lablab bean flowers and pods
Source: BSS
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