A worker collecting ripe summer tomatoes in Shams Tabriz Sweet's garden at Char Gorgoria village in Pabna Sadar upazila.Photo: STAR

Cultivation of summer tomato shows bright prospect in the district, thanks to the initiative of three farmers at village Char Gorgoria in Pabna Sadar upazila.
During a recent visit to the farm, this correspondent saw over seven thousand plants bearing mature tomato, the popular nutritious vegetable that usually grows in winter.
“The special variety of tomato bears good prospect as it is produced in the off season. Planting in early June this year, we started getting yield in early September,” the tomato farm owner, Shams Tabriz Sweet, of village 'Kashipur' in Pabna Sadar upazila, said.
He started selling the special variety tomato in the market before Ramadan.
He collected seeds from Agriculture Research Institute in Gazipur.
Encouraged by a few agriculturists, Sweet and his friends Abdul Latif and Abul Kalam Azad decided to cultivate summer variety of tomato and took lease of seven bigha of land at village Char Gorgoria.
Starting work for the tomato farm in January this year, they made 33 sheds with bamboo sticks and polythene to protect the plants from rain and heat in the summer and it cost them Tk 2.5 to 3 lakh, said Abdul Latif.
“We expect 8 to 10 tonnes of special variety tomato this year. We are hopeful of getting more success in next year. Using organic manure instead of chemical fertilizer, we have got benefit,” Sweet said.
The summer tomato has drawn the attention of people from surrounding areas and many unemployed young people come to him for suggestion to make summer tomato farm, he said.
The production cost at the initial stage, however, is much higher than common variety of tomato as sheds are to be made.
However, the average cost would be less the next year, he said.
Sweet has also planted over 650 trees of 'kasava potato', an African variety of fruit, on two bighas of lands. The nutritious food can be eaten as a vegetable and made into flour for bread, he said.
If the government takes initiative for using abandoned lands for cultivating new varieties of vegetables like summer tomato and kasava, it can create employment opportunity for a good number of people, he said.