In Ishwardi upazila, there is a boom in the cultivation of winter vegetables among the farmers. Farmers have become busy in vegetable cultivation from the idea that if they can get vegetables in the market in advance, they will get more money. Meanwhile, after light rains a week ago, vegetables have become suitable for sowing. Farmers have entered the field with their waists tied.
According to the upazila agriculture office, Ishwardi upazila is known as the main area of vegetable and fruit cultivation in the country. 15 farmers from Ishwardi received national medals for success in agriculture. Carrot, beans, pulses, radish, eggplant, cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, coriander, gourd, sweet pumpkin, red cabbage, spinach, Yardlong bean, papaya, onion and green pepper are widely grown here. Apart from this, there are extensive plantations of the country's best litchi, guava, elderberry and jackfruit. This year, the target of cultivation of different types of winter vegetables has been set in 7 and a half thousand hectares of land in the upazila. Privately, the target will be higher. Upazila's Chalimpur, Muladuli, Laikunda, Sahapur and Pakshi Unions cultivate vegetables.
On Sunday, the Upazila's vegetable fields were visited, and the farmers were busy picking up vegetable seedlings. Some people are planting vegetables to eat. Someone is weeding. At this time we talked with Jalal Uddin, a farmer of Kamalpur village of Laikunda union of the upazila. This time he will plant winter vegetables on 10 bigha land. He has already planted carrot, cauliflower, eggplant, beans, and green chilly in the land. He said, the weather is favorable. After two days of rain last week, the sun rose and the winter vegetables became suitable for cultivation. This time, about 4 lakh Tk were spent on planting winter vegetables carrot, cauliflower, eggplant, beans on Jalal Uddin's 10 bigha land. He expects to sell vegetables worth 5.5 to 6 lakh Tk.
Shahinuzzaman Sardar, a farmer of Mahadevpur village in Sahapur union, has started winter vegetable cultivation in his own 9 bigha land. He is now planting carrots, beetroot, brinjal, cauliflower, leafy greens, tomatoes, radishes, lemons.
He has spent 2 lakh 50 thousand taka to plant these vegetables. He expressed optimism that if the weather is favorable, he will be able to sell vegetables worth more than Tk 400,000.
Ishwardi upazila agriculture officer agriculturist Mita Sarkar said that the farmers of Ishwardi upazila pay special attention to winter vegetables. Apart from that, a significant amount of vegetables, fruits and crops are grown in Ishwardi throughout the year. Ishwardi is now one of the leading upazilas in the country for winter vegetable cultivation.
This time, the target of winter vegetable cultivation has been set on 7 thousand hectares of land in seven unions of Ishwardi. He said that there is an invisible competition among the farmers of Ishwardi who can do better in winter vegetable cultivation.
Farmers don't want to leave their fields in any way. If the weather is favourable, a record amount of winter vegetables is expected to be grown in Ishwardi this year.