Crop cultivation in char land (riverbed) has made the farmers delighted as they are now making profit as a result of their bumper production of winter vegetables including some high valued crops.
In a sense, crop farming has opened up a new door of success as most of the growers are now happy with their outputs at present.
Chars emerging in the rivers of Padma and Mohananda are bringing fortune to many farmers in Paba, Godagari and Bagha upazilas of Rajshahi and Sadar and Shibganj upazilas of Chapainawabganj districts during the last couple of decades.
Hundreds of farmers in the two districts are now very happy as deposits of alluvial silt in the char areas have given them an opportunity to cultivate various crops and vegetables in their fields, said Shamsul Wadud, additional director of department of agriculture extension.
Both acreage and production of various types of vegetables including cauliflower, cabbage, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, cucumber and ladies finger were increased significantly in the riverbed area during the last couple of years benefitting the consumers in general.
All varieties of winter vegetables have now appeared in abundance in the local markets and the yield rates achieved so far are found to be higher than that of the target due to early farming of the vegetables.
Farmers are being habituated with homestead gardening through establishing projection plot of improved technologies adjacent to the localities for enhancing vegetable output.
Modern technologies are being transferred to the growers level through farmers training, projection plot, field day and different types of campaign so that the farmers could make their cultivation more effective and profitable.
Agriculturist Wadud says emphasis is being given to increasing production of high yielding seeds and saplings through farmers’ level extension and application of the high yielding varieties.
Chief Scientific Officer of Regional Wheat and Maize Research Institute Dr Ilias Hossain said many farmers were seen showing success in wheat and maize farming in the charlands after the best uses of the modern technologies.
Nazib Uddin, a farmer of Char Mazar diar, told BSS that he has cultivated pea on 10-bigha land in Padma char. He said after the water receded, he cleaned weeds and made the land suitable for cultivation. He had spent Taka 75,000 lakh for the cultivation and hoped that he would make profit after selling the products.
He says the yield of vegetables is good this year and there is a lot of income by selling vegetables.
