Farmers in Ishwardi, Pabna, are happy this year with a good okra yield and high market prices. The crop, known locally as ashari okra, has yielded very well, and growers are profiting by selling it at almost double the price of other years.

A visit to Patirajpur and Nikorhata villages in Muladuli union found okra grown on hundreds of hectares, with a good yield. Men and women are picking the okra and preparing it for market on a contract of Tk 150 per maund.

Azim Uddin of Nikorhata village said: "I have grown okra on 16 bighas. Cultivation cost Tk 20,000 to 25,000 a bigha. I hope to sell Tk 50,000 to 60,000 worth of okra. If the prices of fertiliser, seed and pesticide had not risen, farmers would have profited more."

Ainul Haque, a farmer of the same village, said that because fertiliser and pesticide are expensive, farmers cannot profit from any crop. But as okra is fetching more than in other years, they can make at least some profit. Before, okra never sold wholesale for more than Tk 20 a kg; this time it reached up to Tk 38 a kg at the wholesale market, and it is still selling at Tk 30 a kg.

Kabir Malitha, an okra farmer of Patirajpur village, said: "The okra market has gone up and down a lot this year. After Eid-ul-Azha, I sold okra at Tk 5 to 7 a kg for almost a month straight. Many people fed okra to their cattle and buffalo then. In the past month, okra has sold at Tk 25 to 38 a kg. Farmers have never sold okra at such a high price before."

Abdur Razzak, general secretary of the Muladuli vegetable wholesalers' association, told Jago News that prices of fresh produce go up and down every day. In the past 15 days okra sold at Tk 28 to 35 a kg at the wholesale market, and it is selling at Tk 40 at retail.

Muladuli union sub-assistant agriculture officer Aliuzzaman Zia said the ashari okra yield was good this year. It is grown on high land and is known to farmers as ashari okra because it usually starts bearing in the Bengali month of Ashar. Farmers are profiting from the good price, he said.

Upazila agriculture officer Mita Sarkar told Jago News: "Okra has been grown on 530 hectares in the upazila this year. It is grown mostly in Muladuli, Sara and Sahapur unions. Thanks to favourable weather the yield is good, and farmers are getting better prices than in other years."

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