Commercial cultivation of purple (or "queen pink") and yellow cauliflower and broccoli has begun in Dagonbhuiyan, Feni. The vegetables look attractive and taste good, so there is strong demand in the market. Farmers in the upazila usually grow white cauliflower.

The vegetables are grown by young entrepreneur Md Hasan Ahmed, owner of Organic Vegetable Garden in Jagatpur village in the municipal area. Using modern technology, he has again grown them commercially this year on 120 decimals of land.

According to sources, no pesticide has been used on the crop, on the advice of the upazila agriculture office; only organic fertiliser is used. Because the same cost brings a bigger profit, local farmers are becoming interested in growing these vegetables.

On a visit, Hasan was found busy tending his crops. Besides coloured cauliflower and broccoli, he grows beetroot, Chinese cabbage, cherry tomatoes, turnips, rice and mustard, as well as ordinary cauliflower and cabbage. People have come from various villages to see the coloured cauliflower; some take photographs holding them, and many buy directly from the garden.

Visitor Farhan Ali said: "I also want to grow coloured cauliflower, so I came to see it for myself. The cauliflowers look lovely. Demand for them is double, and they taste very good too."

Local farmer Rafiq Ullah said: "This is the first time I've seen coloured cauliflower grown, on Hasan Ahmed's land. It looks beautiful and the price in the market is good. I will grow it in future."

Hasan said: "I started growing coloured cauliflower on a trial basis two years ago. This year I tried on a large scale and succeeded. The yield is good and I'm getting good prices. Because it's coloured, it fetches double the price in the market. So far I have sold about 3,000 kg of coloured cauliflower, worth about Tk 1 lakh 80 thousand. Now I'm selling at slightly lower prices. Many people also order online."

Sub-assistant agriculture officer Md Saiful Islam said: "We are giving the entrepreneur Hasan all kinds of advice. We want to bring new information technology to all farmers and are working towards that. We hope others will follow his example and become interested in coloured cauliflower."

Dagonbhuiyan upazila agriculture officer, agriculturist Md Kamruzzaman, said: "Hasan Ahmed works with modern agricultural technology. He has made a stir in Feni district by growing various Chinese vegetables commercially. In future there is scope to supply other entrepreneurs' Chinese vegetables to different districts of the country. Because they are colourful, consumers buy them more."

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