An endeavour to help Bogura farmers

The Covid-19 crisis has made lives of many people, especially marginal farmers, miserable. To overcome this situation, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Bogura has recently taken an initiative to distribute free vegetable seeds and money among the marginal farmers under the gardening project.

As many as 3488 farmers in the district have got the benefit from the project till now, said Md Shahaduzzaman, additional deputy director of DAE in Bogura.

He added that they have lunched a year-round gardening project around homesteads in the district in June this year.

During a recent visit, this correspondent found that a number of farmers in Kagoil union of Gabtoli upazila were enjoying the benefit from the project.

Palash Candra, a farmer of Daskandi village in the upazila, said he has been harvesting organic vegetables from the garden for the last two months. 

Earlier, he got 12 types of vegetable seeds and a cheque of Tk 1935 to make garden from the DAE authority, said the 60-year-old grower.

Mahbubur Rahman of Hizli village said "Our income has decreased amid the pandemic. The price of every vegetable item has increased significantly due to the prolonged flood but we are enjoying benefit from the gardening project."

Monwara Begum of Koichar village said the greater benefit is that they are getting chemical-free vegetables from this garden.

Tabibur Rahman, another grower of Kagil village, said "We are getting sufficient vegetables from this one-decimal garden in the crisis time. After seeing my garden, many villagers started homestead gardening."

Farmer Shahidul Islam of Koichor village said "Before starting this homestead gardening, I spent Tk 400 to Tk 600 for buying vegetables for my extended family every week, but now I can save this money."

However, every farmer of the union is not getting the opportunity. Only selected farmers are getting this benefit.

Upazila sub-assistant agriculture officer Zannatul Mohol said a farmer, who has one decimal of land at their home yard to make garden, is getting the benefit.   

Only 32 farmers in a union have got this benefit from the gardening project, said the officer.

Bogura DAE Deputy Director Md Dulal Hossain said they started the year-round project to support the farmers amid the pandemic.

He further added that in the first phase, 32 farmers in a union parishad got the opportunity to make the garden.