Vegetable farming on sandy land
Farmers of char (landmass emerging from riverbed) areas along the Teesta river basin in Sundarganj upazila are improving their economic condition by growing vegetables on unused land and their homesteads.
The sandy lands adjacent to dwelling houses in char areas used to remain abandoned round the year and were often used as grazing fields for cattle. Farmers started growing vegetables on the lands as instructed by officials of the upazila agriculture department, locals said.
The trend of vegetable farming in such lands spread to different char lands along the river basin.
On a visit to Dahabandh char area, this correspondent saw that the fallow lands had turned green with ginger, garlic, turmeric, bean, papaya, pumpkin and other vegetables.
Raju Mia, a bean grower of the village, said he cultivated beans on one bigha of abandoned land last year and earned Tk a profit of Tk 20,000 after covering the production cost. This year, he planted different kinds of bean on one and a half bighas of land and expects to get better yield.
Faizur Rahman, a marginal farmer of Santiram village, said he cultivated turmeric on 20 decimals of land adjacent to his house last year and got 25 maunds of green turmeric, which he sold at Tk 2,000 per maund.
Local farmers pointed out that over 50 small farmers of Ramjibon union cultivated different kinds of vegetables in their homesteads and adjacent abandoned lands this year and earned additional income.
Vegetable farming is more profitable than farming crops like paddy and jute, so farmers want to cultivate the produce in their homesteads and fallow lands, said Ramjan Ali, a sharecropper.
Sundarganj Upazila Agriculture Officer Rashedul Islam said farmers are very interested in vegetable farming as they can get additional profit with a little investment.
“We encourage farmers to use abandoned lands for vegetable cultivation, and the number of growers is increasing gradually every year,” he added.
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