Pabel Hossain, 35, a young farm entrepreneur in Boro Gopaldi village of Betagi Sankipur union in Dashmina, Patuakhali, grows bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cucumber on trellises over 33 decimals of land. Having spent only Tk 14,000, he has so far sold Tk 70,000 of vegetables and hopes to sell another Tk 40,000 to 45,000 before the season ends, BSS reported.
He grows the Marshal Super variety of bottle gourd and the Tia Super and Pearly Plus varieties of bitter gourd. Rows of gourds hang from trellises of bamboo poles and wire. He packs 14 to 16 bottle gourds, or 8 to 9 kg of bitter gourd, into each foam box and sends three or four boxes to market a day, and wholesalers from other upazilas come to buy at the field.
Bitter gourd now fetches Tk 40 to 45 a kilo at wholesale, bottle gourd Tk 30, 40 or 50 each depending on size, and cucumber Tk 30 to 45 a kilo, he said. Trellises make the plants easy to tend and harvest: bamboo poles hold a frame about five feet off the ground, tied firmly with wire or twine, and one trellis can carry three or four successive crops of gourds and other vegetables, saving the cost of building a new one each time.
Sub-assistant agriculture officer Md Anwar Hossain said Pabel used vermicompost and yellow sticky traps under the SACP-RAINS project, and the plot has yielded well.
Inspired by him, Abu Yusuf, 25, of the same village has started growing vegetables too, and now sells at market after meeting his family's needs.
Md Zafar Ahmed, the Dashmina upazila agriculture officer, said commercial trellis growing of bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cucumber is spreading in the upazila, especially among young growers. Farmers have been given free bottle gourd and bitter gourd seed and chemical fertiliser, along with regular advice on improved varieties, care of the plants and building trellises.
Photo: Bottle gourds (illustrative), Salim Khandoker / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: BSS
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