Azad Moral, a farmer of Anandabas village in Bagoan union of Mujibnagar upazila, Meherpur, has made three times the profit by growing cucumbers. With planned cultivation and proper care of the field, cucumber yields more than paddy or tobacco, and pays more too. It is not only Azad: more than a hundred local farmers have profited from growing cucumbers.

"In 2018 I gave up tobacco and started growing cucumbers for the first time, on just one bigha that year," Azad Moral said. "The land used to be under tobacco. Tobacco needs a lot of fertiliser, so we ran up big debts at the fertiliser shops in the area. My wife had to stay up all night curing the tobacco, and she fell ill from the burning. That is why I started growing cucumber instead of tobacco."

"Then, cucumbers sold for Tk 70,000 to Tk 80,000 a bigha. The next year I grew cucumbers on two more bighas, and it has grown step by step until now I farm five bighas. Growing cucumbers costs Tk 30,000 to Tk 35,000 a bigha," he said.

According to the upazila agriculture office, cucumbers are being grown on 140 hectares in the upazila this season. Cucumbers and other vegetables from Shibpur, Biswanathpur, Komorpur, Mahajanpur, Babupur, Anandabas, Rashikpur, Dariapur, Gourinagar, Jatarpur and Gopalpur in Mujibnagar now meet local demand and have taken a place in vegetable markets across the country, including Karwan Bazar in the capital.

Mujibnagar upazila agricultural extension officer Anisuzzaman Khan said the agriculture department's guidance, farmers' hard work and favourable weather had produced a good cucumber yield this season. With demand for cucumbers across the country, farmers are profiting well, he said.

Source: Prothom Alo. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.