Farmers in Baktaboli and Alirtek unions of Narayanganj Sadar upazila see promise in winter vegetables. With the arrival of winter, the farmland of the two unions has turned green, and farmers are smiling. If all goes well, they hope to make a good profit.

Sources say Baktaboli and Alirtek are known as the farming heartland of Sadar upazila. Of the upazila's 3,758 hectares, the two unions have more than 2,000 hectares of farmland. Although farmland is shrinking day by day, some remains in these two unions next to the city, where farmers grow a variety of crops. As every year, they are growing a range of winter vegetables this season.

Farmer Ali Hossain said: "I have been farming for several years and make a decent profit every year. This year I have farmed 80 decimals, 40 of them with cauliflower and the rest with other vegetables. I sell the cauliflower by the piece. It will take another month and a half to reach the market, and until then I have to keep working; I spend the whole day in the field. If there is no natural disaster, I hope for a very good yield and a good profit."

Md Nurul Haque said: "This year I have grown cucumber, bitter gourd, tomato, sponge gourd, ridge gourd, coriander and other vegetables. We farm on sharecropped land, and this year I have grown winter vegetables on four and a half bighas. We make a reasonable profit every year. Radish greens sold well this year, and now I am selling cucumbers, which have done very well. I hope to do well from the other vegetables too."

A farmer named Alal said: "My home village is in Jamalpur. I came here and have been farming sharecropped land for the past four or five years. This year I am growing coriander, bitter gourd, tomato, brinjal, sponge gourd and cabbage. So far bitter gourd has produced the most. With a good yield I can earn up to one and a half lakh taka a year."

Muhammad Shah Alam, deputy director of the Narayanganj district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said: "Farmland in Narayanganj is shrinking because of housing. Even so, Baktaboli and Alirtek unions of Sadar upazila have several thousand hectares of farmland, which farmers from different areas and local farmers cultivate as sharecroppers. As every year, winter vegetables have been grown on the land of the two unions this season. A good yield is expected if the overall situation remains favourable."

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