In Matiranga, Khagrachhari, young farmer Md Anwar Hossain watched YouTube videos on growing pointed gourd and is now harvesting his own. Pointed gourd was hardly grown in the area before; his trial plot has drawn several other farmers to the vegetable, Protidiner Bangladesh reports.
Anwar lives in Charpara, ward 5 of Matiranga municipality. Inspired by the videos in 2024, he brought 100 cuttings of the BARI-1 and BARI-2 varieties from Naogaon at Tk 17 each and planted them on a trellis built over a paddy field. The vines began to bear within two months.
He gave the costs too. Land preparation, cuttings, organic fertiliser, pesticide, yellow pheromone traps, the trellis and labour came to Tk 7,000-8,000 for 10 decimals in the first round. Care since then costs about Tk 2,000 a month, and the plot yields 350 to 400 kg of pointed gourd a month.
According to the upazila agriculture office, pointed gourd covered just 1 hectare in Matiranga in the 2025-26 fiscal year, and the target for this season is 10 tonnes. It sold for Tk 40-50 a kg at the start of the season; with winter vegetables arriving, the price has fallen to Tk 30-35.
Following Anwar, Bachchu Mia of Charpara and Abdus Chhattar of Wachhu have each planted 10 decimals, so pointed gourd now grows on 30 decimals at three spots in Matiranga. None of the three owns land; all are sharecroppers. Anwar also rents an acre at Tk 80,000 for cauliflower, cabbage, tomato and papaya, with 5,000 cabbage-family seedlings planted at Tk 25-30 each to maturity.
"I wanted to grow something different, so I followed YouTube and started pointed gourd. The yield is good now," Anwar said. Sub-assistant agriculture officer Debashish Chakma says the office advises him regularly in the field. Upazila agriculture officer Md Shahabuddin Ahmed called the trellis-over-paddy method and mixed cropping on rented land praiseworthy, and said Matiranga's soil and climate suit vegetables well.
Reported by Md Abul Hashem, Matiranga (Khagrachhari), Protidiner Bangladesh.
Photo: pointed gourd, Engr.Raju / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Protidiner Bangladesh
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