Farmers in Jhalakathi are busy with winter vegetables. Planting and tending seedlings of different varieties has kept farming families occupied. Rising at the crack of dawn, farmers are in the fields caring for seedlings, weeding and watering. The vegetables are grown commercially, not just for their own needs, and farmers are turning to early vegetables for better prices.

Farmers are sending vegetables of different varieties to Jhalakathi and neighbouring districts, and women are taking an active part in farm work alongside men. Winter vegetable seedlings are still available at markets in the district's four upazilas, with prices varying by variety. Besides professional farmers, hobbyists are taking up rooftop and homestead gardening.

A visit to Nabagram and Kirtipasha unions of Sadar upazila found the fields turning green, with rows of seedlings of beans, cauliflower, cabbage, bottle gourd, brinjal, radish, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, spinach, red amaranth and other winter vegetables. At dawn farmers set out with spades, weeders, buckets and spray machines, and return home in the afternoon. The workload keeps growing.

According to the Jhalakathi district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), winter vegetables are grown commercially every year in 36 villages of Sadar upazila, with women contributing alongside men. In 15 villages of four unions in Sadar upazila, vegetables are grown all 12 months of the year. Women and men farm together, with men helping and handling marketing.

About 5,000 families in these areas now live by growing vegetables, and the agriculture department is giving technical support to encourage them. According to the department, vegetables are grown on 3,100 hectares in Sadar upazila in the rabi season and on 2,200 hectares in summer. Output is 43,400 tonnes in the rabi season and 13,200 tonnes in summer, meeting local demand and supplying other parts of the country.

Sabita Rani Halder of Bhimruli village in Kirtipasha union said women in the villages did not do this much work in the past. Back then guava, coconut, betel nut and a little rice were grown, and almost every household was in want. Now women work in the fields alongside men, so vegetables are grown in the villages all year round, and the farmers' poverty has gone.

Sabuj Howlader of the same area said men and women farmers work equally. Women look after the fields as well as cooking and caring for the children, while men are busy harvesting, marketing, preparing new vegetable plots for the women and other work.

Mahinur Begum of Shuktagarh village in Rajapur said that last year she harvested about 40 tonnes of greens and vegetables from 1 acre, earning about Tk 3.5 lakh selling them wholesale.

Local farmers said the vegetables grown in these villages meet the district's demand and are shipped to Dhaka and Barishal. Thanks to the Padma Bridge, wholesalers now go from village to village collecting vegetables from the fields and sending them to big markets. Often, even when the quantity is small, it is the women who take vegetables to the market. Vegetables are valued across the country; with modern methods they can be grown free of pesticides, and because pesticide use here is much lower, the quality is among the best and demand is high.

Narayan Mistri, a farmer from Shimulia village in Sadar upazila, said: "Growing vegetables doesn't need much land. It needs relatively little capital and much less labour, but you can't neglect the care. Vegetables are ready to sell in a short time and can be sold at market almost every day, and they also meet the family's needs. Vegetable prices are quite good this season too. All in all, we find vegetable farming profitable."

Monirul Islam, deputy director of the agricultural extension department in Jhalakathi, said: "All crops, including winter vegetables, are yielding well this time. Quality winter vegetable seed and fertiliser have been given to marginal farmers. I hope cultivation and production will exceed the target, because the agriculture department is helping farmers in many ways, including incentives and advice. Women's participation in farming is making the rural economy stronger."

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