Farmers of Chuadanga have been passing their days with anxiety thinking about selling two type of brinjal produced by them at the rate of Tk 10 and Tk 15 per kilogram recently.
It is learnt, farmers did not harvest brinjal since before the Eid-ul-Ajha, So, there are huge amount of brinjal left in the field. Brinjal’s demand of consumers is insufficient for this reason as farmers are not getting fair price at present.
Farmers can harvest twice in a week. About Tk 400 per mound long black brinjal is being sold at Tk 400 while white brinjal at Tk 600 per mound at present, farmers said.
They cultivated locally called kata begun and kalo lomba begun (ball type white brinjal and long black brinjal). A farmer needs about Tk 40,000 for cultivation on one bigha of land from where they can get a yield around 120 to 150 mounds of brinjal in a season.
Hedon Ali Mondal of village Shreekol-boalia in sadar upazila told this correspondent, he has taken under brinjal cultivation on 10 kathas of land at his village. Huge brinjals are in the plant but that was not picked up for selling from the field due to lack of buyers. Frequently he is to harvest brinjal from his field and to sell it at Tk 10 per kg.
Ichanur Rahman, a farmer of village Garabaria in sadarupazila of the district said that he cultivated brinjal on 1.5 bighas of land. In the meantime he has got tk. 40,000 by selling brinjal up to date. At present about 30 mounds of brinjal are in the plant for sale but shortage of buyers and wholesalers it is now unsold.
He also stated that his expenditure has been estimated at Tk 55,000 for cultivation of brinjal on the land and seems to be facing financial losses.
This correspondent visited the local kitchen markets and found that brinjal is being sold between Tk 25 and 30 per kg.
It may be mentioned here that the cost of fertilizers, pesticide and labors are less and it gives them more profit compared to other vegetables. The summer brinjal starts blooming and continues to bloom within one month of planting. The farmers start harvesting after 1 month 15 days planting of brinjals they are very eager to cultivate it.
According to District Agriculture Extension Department, a total of 1221 hectares of land have been taken under brinjal cultivation in the district at Kharif-1 season this year. Upazila wise breaks up are-285 hectares in sadar upazila, 350 in Alamdanga upazila, 266 in Damurhuda upazila and 320 in Jibannagar upazila.
Farmers of the areas have expected to produce brinjal about 26,862 metric tons by cultivating of 1,221 hectares of land. Sources added that 6,270 metric tons of brinjal have to produce in sadar upazila, 7,700 metric tons in Alamdanga upazila, 5,852 metric tons in Damurhuda upazila and 7,040 metric tonnes in Jibannagar upazila.
Sufi Mohammad, Deputy Director (in charge) told the Bangladesh Post, demand of brinjal is comparably less by the consumers. He hoped that after some days the demand of birnjal may increase in the markets and farmers will get fair price then.
