Farmers in Gaibandha are busy growing winter vegetables. Hit by this year's heavy rain and floods, they are now turning to winter vegetables to make up their losses. Their produce will reach the market shortly, and they dream of making a bigger profit from it. If the weather stays favourable, farmers expect a bumper crop in the district again this year. But farmers complain that agriculture officials have given them little advice in the field at the right time.

The district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) says vegetables grown in the district every year meet local demand and also supply Dhaka and other districts. This season a target has been set to grow vegetables on 6,947 hectares. The agriculture department says it is giving farmers every kind of help for a good crop. This year floods and heavy rain disrupted vegetable farming somewhat, destroying seed and seedlings. This hit the district's markets, where prices of various vegetables suddenly rose. With the monsoon over, farmers have begun growing winter vegetables to make up their losses.

The vegetables grown in the district's upazilas include cauliflower, cabbage, radish, tomato, beans, bottle gourd, spinach, red amaranth, coriander and many other greens. On the ground, some farmers were preparing land, some sowing seed or planting seedlings, and others tending seedlings that had come up. All in all, farmers are busy.

Farmers are busy weeding and watering their vegetable fields, smiling with satisfaction as they look at the coming crop. But they complain that agriculture officials do not give any advice or help at the right time. Marginal farmers Azgar Ali, Bakul Mia and Parvin Begum were working in the fields, some preparing land for winter vegetables and some tending their plots, sweating all day under the fierce late-autumn sun in the hope of a bigger profit.

Azgar Ali, a farmer of Dakkhinpur village in Sadullapur upazila of Gaibandha, is struggling this year with high prices of seed, fertiliser, pesticide and other inputs, and fears lower output as a result. He is working hard on winter vegetables in the hope of a better profit.

Farmer Abul Hossain said: "I have already planted onion and radish on one and a half bighas. The crop may be sold in a while. It has cost about Tk 25,000, more than last year. So a profit is possible only with a bigger yield and a good price."

Samad Mia, a farmer of Shibpur village in Gobindaganj upazila, said: "Like every year, I have grown carrot, brinjal and other vegetables for winter. We get no help of any kind from the agriculture department. With their advice or incentives we could make more profit."

Helal Mia, a farmer of Amlagami village in Palashbari upazila, said: "I have grown winter vegetables with great effort, buying expensive seed and fertiliser. When our vegetables reach the market, prices will fall. The agriculture office doesn't even give us a little advice or help."

Khorshed Alam, deputy director of the Gaibandha agriculture department, told Jagonews: "Seed and fertiliser are being distributed to farmers in phases as incentives this Rabi season. Field-level agriculture officers have been told to give full support so that farmers get higher yields of winter vegetables."

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