Off-season spinach

An innovative farmer of Beelmahamudpur village under Sadar upazila has drawn the attention of people from different areas as he has successfully cultivated palang shak (spinach) in the off-season.

Bachchu Mollah, 38, son of Saizuddin Mollah, said he cultivated summer palang shak on two decimals of land on experimental basis last year, adding that production cost was Tk 5,000 and he earned Tk 12,000.

“I cultivated summer palang shak on 12 decimals of land this year also. The total cultivation cost was Tk 30,000 and I started to sell the vegetable within 18 days of planting. I sold it at Tk 100 to Tk 120 per kilogram and hope to get Tk 90,000 more this year,” Bachchu added.

“I am a wholesaler of cosmetics. I became interested in agriculture with encouragement from my uncle, who got training from the Philippines. I started cultivating summer tomatoes on my 12 decimals of land five years ago. Later, I also got training from government and non-governmental institutions,” he said.

“Bachchu is always interested in innovative agricultural work. He has been cultivating summer tomatoes for five years, but his off-season palang shak cultivation is really a unique agricultural work,” said Sadar Upazila Agriculture Officer Md Abul Bashar Mia.

“I have visited Bachchu's palang shak field. He has done innovative agricultural work and he is the first man who has done it in summer season in our district,” said Faridpur Department of Agricultural Extension Deputy Director Kartik Chadra Chakraborty.