The cultivation of sweet potato is regaining its lost glory in Manikganj that disappeared from the district, reports BSS. Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said a total of 170 hectares of land was brought under sweet potato cultivation in all seven upazilas in the district with a production target of 3,172 metric tons during the current season.
The harvesting of sweet potato has already started and is appearing in the markets. The sweet potato cultivators are happy to getting its high price in the markets. DAE sources said once Manikganj district was famous for sweet potato cultivation. Sometimes sweet potatoes were cultivated about five thousand hectares of land in the district.
But the producers did not get their desired prices of their products and declined the cultivation of the potatoes. An elderly sweet potato cultivator Wahed Ali (70) of Dalla village of Singair Upazila of the district said ‘we had to sell Taka 30-35 per mound of sweet potato before some years. We did not get our production cost selling it in the markets.
Now sweet potatoes are using as one of the best vegetables. Now per Kg. sweet potatos are being sold at Taka 25-30 in the markets’. Even early harvesting sweet potato was sold at Taka 40-50 per Kg. in the markets, he added. Another sweet potato grower Halim Mollah of Chargujuri village under Manikganj sadar upazila said ‘sweet potato cultivation is easy and it needs no fertilizer and irrigation’.
DAE office sources said the sandy and half-sandy land is suitable for sweet potato cultivation. About 80 hectares of land was brought under sweet potato cultivation in Singair Upazila of the district during the current season. Sweet potato is a good food items to some people in the district, the sources added.
