Farmers will get seed, fertiliser and all other support needed to expand summer tomato cultivation, agriculture secretary Md Sayedul Islam has said.

He said this as chief guest at a field day on summer tomatoes in Batra village of Kalaroa, Satkhira, on Friday. The field day was organised by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI).

To ensure fair prices for tomatoes, imports from India will be halted at the peak of the season if necessary, he said, and the decision will be taken after discussion with the commerce ministry.

The field day was chaired by BARI director general Debashish Sarkar, with Sabiha Parvin, executive director (additional secretary) of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, as special guest. Also present were BARI director Apurba Kanti Chowdhury, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Khulna region additional director Fazlul Haque, Satkhira deputy director Jamal Uddin and Kalaroa upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Runi Biswas, among others.

Summer tomato growers at the field day raised problems including difficulty marketing tomatoes, not getting fair prices and the lack of cold storage.

In response, the agriculture secretary said a marketing centre would be set up in Batra village, and a multi-chamber cold store would soon be built where tomatoes as well as other vegetables and potatoes could be stored.

He also instructed field-level agriculture officers to keep up strict monitoring to prevent manipulation of fertiliser.

Cultivation of BARI-developed summer hybrid tomatoes is increasing steadily in Satkhira. Last year the variety was grown on 70 hectares in the district; this year it has been grown on 95 hectares.

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