Fair prices delight aubergine growers

Bumper yield and fair prices have brought smile to brinjal farmers at different villages in Sadarpur upazila of the district.

According to the district office of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), 486 hectares of land in the upazila have been brought under brinjal cultivation this year. BP hybrids, Iret and Sinduri are cultivated here.

During a recent visit to Shoildubi, Math Shoildubi, Abuler Mor and Badhano Ghat areas in the upazila, this correspondent found growers passing busy time to harvest brinjal at their fields.

A good number of wholesalers from different parts of the country have come to buy brinjal form the farmers in the upazila.

Hariz Mollah, a farmer of Shoildubi area, said brinjal cultivation is more profitable than other corps in the area. The soil of this region is suitable for brinjal cultivation.

Another grower Shahed Ali of Math Shoildubi village said “I have cultivated brinjal on one bigha of land spending Tk 25,000 this year. I have already sold 30 maunds of brinjal and per maund was sold at Tk 1,400. I hope I will get more 70 maunds, if the weather is good.”

Wholesaler Abdul Salam Matabbar of Abuler Mor area said “There is high demand for this brinjal at different kitchen markets across the country. We send five to ten trucks of brinjal to different districts including Dhaka every day.”

Habibur Rahman, a wholesaler of Dhaka, said they bought brinjal at Tk 1,400 per maund from the growers in the upazila.

They earned a profit of Tk 200 to Tk 250 per maund by selling the vegetable at different markets in Dhaka, he said.

Faridpur DAE Deputy Director (DD) Kartik Chandra Chakraborty said the soil and weather in the upazila is suitable for brinjal cultivation.

They arranged training and conducted campaigns for brinjal farmers in the upazila as cultivation of brinjal is profitable, said the DD.