Narsingdi's vegetables have a reputation of their own across the country. Because the district's vegetables are of good quality and nutritious, there is demand for them all over Bangladesh.

The district's wide farmlands are now filled with vegetables of many kinds. Fields are smiling with beans, cauliflower and a range of other winter crops, and supply of winter vegetables has risen in the district's wholesale and retail markets, bringing prices down.

Farmers and the agriculture department say that although early winter vegetables did not yield well at the start of the season because of heavy rain and fog, production of all kinds of vegetables is now rising. According to the district agriculture office, the target for winter vegetable cultivation this season was set at 10,000 hectares. Most vegetables are grown in Shibpur, Monohardi, Belabo and Raipura upazilas.

Farmers who planted early winter vegetables were hit by heavy rain, and falling supply pushed up prices. After raising seedlings again and again once the rain passed, farmers have now increased production. With favourable weather, output of cauliflower, cabbage, red amaranth, bottle gourd, radish, beans, okra, pumpkin, aubergine and other winter vegetables has risen, and supply to wholesale markets, thin early in the winter, is growing.

Farmers bring their produce to the wholesale markets at Baraicha and Narayanpur in Belabo upazila, Jangi Shibpur and Marjal in Raipura upazila, and Shibpur, Palpara, Joshar, Srishtigarh and Kondarpara in Shibpur upazila. Wholesale buyers purchase 30 to 40 truckloads of vegetables a day from local markets and send them to Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chattogram and Sylhet. Narsingdi's vegetables meet about 40 per cent of these districts' demand.

At the Narayanpur vegetable market in Belabo upazila on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, growers from surrounding villages had gathered with baskets of winter vegetables on vans and rickshaws, and the market was lively with bargaining.

Farmer Chan Mia told Banglanews: "This year I grew beans on one bigha. Production is good and the price is good too. I have already covered my costs by selling half the beans, so I will make a good profit."

Rubel Mia, a farmer of Kundarpara village in Shibpur upazila, said yields were low at the start of the season because of fog and heavy rain, but as the weather gradually turned favourable the fields came alive with winter vegetables. "Every farmer's production is good. There are more vegetables in the market than demand, so all prices are low. Even so, farmers will make a profit this time," he said.

Shariat Sarkar, a wholesale buyer from Dhaka, said Narsingdi's vegetables are in demand across the country and have a reputation of their own, so they sell easily. They are also cheaper than vegetables from other areas, which is why he buys at Narsingdi's markets to sell in Dhaka.

Shukur Ali, another wholesale buyer from Sylhet, told Banglanews that Narsingdi's markets offer a lot of vegetables in one place. Because farmers bring produce straight to market, buyers can purchase at fair prices with no middlemen, and the good quality and nutrition of the vegetables make them easy to sell at a profit.

Shovon Kumar Dhar, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Narsingdi, told Banglanews that farmers had increased production after overcoming fog and heavy rain early in the season and raising seedlings repeatedly. As output grows and supply rises, prices of all vegetables are falling every week. Prices will become more affordable once full production begins, but farmers will not suffer losses, he said.

Source: Banglanews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.