Farmers in Jhenaidah are busy with early winter vegetables. Favourable weather has brought good yields this season and early produce is fetching strong prices, but higher prices for fertiliser, pesticide and diesel have pushed up what it costs to grow them.
Fields across the district are planted with cauliflower, cabbage, beans, radish, bottle gourd and Malabar spinach. Vegetables that reach the market before the main season sell for more, which is drawing more farmers to early planting.
According to the district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), the target this year was 5,785 hectares of vegetables. The area planted has gone past it, to about 6,050 hectares.
Akidul Islam, a farmer in Holidhani village of Sadar upazila, and Zahir Uddin, who farms in the Muraridah field of ward 9 of the municipality, said both yields and prices are good this year, but input costs have risen sharply. Had input prices been kept in check, they said, they would earn more.
Sub-assistant agriculture officers Md Mofiz Uddin of Holidhani union and Ferdous Haider Jewel of Saganna union said farmers can still make a profit after the extra costs if they get a fair price in line with demand.
DAE deputy director Kamruzzaman said the district's high land and soil suit vegetable farming, and that farmers are being given advice and technical support to expand early vegetable cultivation.
Photo: NagaBazarRajshahi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Agricare24
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