Farmers in Tangail are busy growing winter vegetables. Growers hit by this year's heavy rain and floods are turning to winter vegetables to make up their losses, and their produce will reach the market within a few days.

Farmers now dream of higher profits from selling winter vegetables. Agriculture officials hope for a bumper crop in the district again this year if the weather stays favourable.

According to the district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), vegetables grown in the district each year meet local demand and also supply the capital Dhaka and other districts.

Watered by the Jamuna, Dhaleshwari and Louhajang rivers, the district has fertile land, and large amounts of winter vegetables are grown especially in its char areas and plains upazilas. The district's three hilly upazilas also grow plenty of winter vegetables.

The district agriculture department said a target of 11,000 hectares of winter vegetables has been set this year, and farmers are being given all kinds of support for a good harvest.

Floods and heavy rain disrupted vegetable growing this year, destroying seed and seedlings. This hit the district's markets, where prices of various vegetables suddenly rose. With the monsoon over, farmers have started growing winter vegetables to recover their losses.

Vegetables being grown in the district's upazilas include cauliflower, cabbage, radish, tomato, beans, bottle gourd, spinach, red amaranth, coriander leaves and many other greens and vegetables.

In the fields, some farmers were preparing land, others were sowing seed or planting seedlings, and others were tending young vegetable plants. Across field after field, as far as the eye can see, winter vegetables are being grown, with men and women farmers busy weeding and watering.

Badsha, a farmer at Galar Char in Tangail Sadar upazila, said: "Every year the land under winter vegetables is growing in our area compared with other crops. A lot of rice used to be grown in this area. Now new settlements on cultivable land have shrunk the farmland, and vegetables are being grown here instead of rice."

Mofiz, a farmer from Baguntal village in Hugra union, said: "You can make more profit from winter vegetables than from other crops. That is why I grow vegetables every year. There is demand for the produce in the market in winter, so it pays."

Sharif, a farmer from Kalihati, said: "Once our vegetables reach the market, vegetable prices will fall, and the shortage in the market will end too. I hope to make a profit from vegetables this year."

Farzana Khan, a senior officer of the Department of Agricultural Marketing in Tangail, said the district is famous for growing all kinds of vegetables. A huge amount is grown every year, meeting local demand and supplying the capital and other districts, and the vegetables fetch good prices. That is why farmers are showing more interest in winter vegetables this year.

Md Dulal Uddin, training officer of the DAE in Tangail, said that if the weather stays favourable Tangail will again have a bumper vegetable crop. That will end the vegetable shortage in the market and bring prices within buyers' reach.

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