Tomato growers in Kamalganj, Moulvibazar, are getting bigger harvests from grafted early and rabi-season crops but cannot get a fair price. Early tomatoes that sold for Tk 100-110 a kg at this time last year now fetch Tk 50-60. Growers blame relaxed duties on tomato and green chilli imports across the border.
The Kamalganj technique joins an improved tomato scion to a wild bitter eggplant (tit begun) rootstock, giving plants that do not lodge or snap and yield more. Upazila agriculture officer Rakibul Islam said the hardy rootstock also raises disease resistance. After success with cluster farming under plastic mulch, the method has spread to other upazilas.
Agriculture department figures put this year's rabi tomato target for the district at 1,200 hectares, with 130 hectares of early kharif-1 tomatoes and 19 hectares of summer tomatoes. More than 6.5 million grafted seedlings were produced, selling at Tk 12-15 each from nurseries. Kamalganj has 60 hectares under early tomatoes this season.
Young grower Abdul Mannan of Shukurullagaon spent about Tk 26 lakh on some 13 bighas of early tomatoes; costs have doubled while prices have halved, he said. Growers complain that expensive pesticides fail to control disease, that leaf curl forced them to replant, and that erosion by the Dholai and Gopla rivers swept away seedbeds. The district has no cold store or processing plant for tomatoes, so gluts are sold for next to nothing. Tea-estate workers employed in the fields earn Tk 300-400 a day for women and Tk 500-600 for men.
Upazila executive officer Sandwip Kumar Talukder said a list of 380 farmers has been finalised for support. Jalal Uddin, deputy director of the district DAE, said talks are under way on building a modern cold store and that action will be taken against any dealer found selling adulterated pesticide.
The report is from Dinajpur TV's agriculture desk.
Photo: Judgefloro / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Dinajpur TV
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