Tomato brings them fortune

Farmers at Karnopur village under Mogholhat union in the Sadar upazila are happy as they are getting good profit from tomato farming this season. All the 35 growers in the village also got a better output than the last years.
Abul Hossain,52, of the village said,” I have cultivated only one bigha this season and harvested around 20 maunds of tomato a week. I got Tk 18 thousand from selling tomato last week. Each maund was sold at Tk 1000 to 800.”
“I hope I will get more 10 to 12 maunds of tomato a day from my land for the next 20 days,” he said.
Tomato grower Mozammel Haque,47, said he spent aroundTk 4 thousand for cultivating tomato on one bigha of land. He himself, his wife and two sons took care of the field.
“I cultivated paddy on the land last year and got only one thousand taka profit. But the same land gave me an unexpected profit this year,” he said.
Monsur Ali,42, another tomato grower at Karnopur village said that his family members hope to purchase cropland with the profit money this season.
“We cultivated tomato on two bighas and we now plan to cultivate it on more land," he said.
Abdul Mazid,42, said all the 35 tomato farmers at Karnopur village cultivated tomato this year and all of them got high profit from the winter vegetable.
A few who did not cultivate tomato at the village came to meet me and learn about tomato farming in their land, he said.
Around 250 bighas of land saw tomato farming in the district this year. Of those, 110 bighas are at Karnopur village, an agriculture official said.
Mohammad Nuruzzaman, Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila agriculture officer said the farmers got bumper yield of tomato this year due to favourable weather condition and good seeds.
“All the 35 tomato growers of Karnopur village always kept in touch of my office. I myself and other field level officials of the department always gave them necessary advice."
Karnopur villagers have been cultivating some common vegetables in the last few years. But the farmers here have changed their mind this year which brought them fortune.