Early farming of beans, one of the nutritious vegetables, has brought smile to the farmers as they are getting lucrative price everywhere in Rajshahi region, including its vast Barind tract, during the last couple of days.
At present, an advanced variety of bean has started appearing in the markets and the vegetable is being sold at Taka 95 to 100 per kilogram in wholesale markets, while at Taka 100 to 120 in retail markets.
In addition to the homestead ones, commercial farming of the vegetable has been gaining popularity for the last couple of years as many of the farmers built their fortunes through the cash crop farming.
In the wake of gradually increasing demands, commercial farming of the vegetable has also been rising in the region. Growers are seen getting lucrative prices of the harvested vegetable besides others winter vegetables making the consumers in general happy at present.
Piarul Islam, a farmer of Dharampur village under Godagari upazila, has become successful in bean farming that has made him solvent. "I had earned a profit of around Taka 60,000 after cultivating the vegetable on 10 katha of land last year," he said with a smiling face.
He has cultivated the vegetable on one bigha of land with setting up stages made of bamboo sticks this season and has been selling the crop for the last couple of weeks at lucrative price.
Islam said farmers spend around Taka 35,000 to 40,000 for cultivating beans on one bigha of land and get a yield of 150 to 200 maunds from per bigha on an average.
Babul Akter, 56, another farmer of Purakhali village, has cultivated the crop on 12 katha of land this year after getting success on four katha of land last year.
Abdul Mazid, 35, a farmer of Soipara village under Mohanpur upazila in the district, has already sold beans valued around Taka 85,000 from his farming field in the current season. He has become delighted with the good yield and getting lucrative market prices of the vegetable.
Mazid has cultivated the vegetable on around two bigha of land commercially. Each kilogram of the vegetable is being sold at Taka 100-110 from his farming field directly at present while it is being sold at Taka 70-80 in retail markets.
He expressed the hope that he would be able to sell beans worth over Taka two lakh from his field in the current season.
Large numbers of farmers like Abdul Mazid are now engaged in bean cultivation commercially considering its economic prospect after the best uses of modern technologies and high yielding varieties like Ghritakanchan and Rupbhan.
While visiting some farming areas of the region like Huzripara, Chowberia, Darusha, Rajabari, Haripur and Pakri recently the farmers were seen nursing their bean-field with much enthusiasm.
The plants were covered with massive green leaves, multicolored flowers and beans. With the advent of winter season, harvested beans have been appearing in the local markets abundantly.
Ariful Islam, a farmer of Sarail village, has cultivated beans on 10 katha of low-lying land and already harvested crops valued at Taka 45,000. He spent Taka 17,000 for farming purposes.
Talking to BSS, Ariful said that a silent revolution has taken place in bean farming in different areas of the Barind tract.
Beans cultivation has become an effective means of bringing fortune for many farmers in the region comprising 25 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts in both summer and winter seasons.
Jahangir Alam Khan, a development activist in the region, said the farmers are becoming habituated to cultivating beans on homesteads, demarcating lands of paddy fields and other catchment areas as they are earning money regularly.
Marginal farmers and the poor people in the region are mostly engaged in this venture by making the best use of spaces around their homes over the last couple of years.
Jahangir Khan said the farmers are now not dependent on selling their cash crops in nearby hats and Bazar because the wholesalers are seen purchasing all the seasonal vegetables from the farming fields directly.
Large-scale promotion of homestead gardening is being judged as an effective means of making the villagers self-reliant as they are getting regular cash crops together with meeting up the nutritional demands.
Dr Motaleb Hossain, deputy director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said the farmers in the region are successfully producing varieties of winter vegetables like beans, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, carrot, beet, turnip, tomato, leafy spinach, red spinach, and receiving lucrative prices in the wholesale markets.
He said the growers are very much happy as they avail the scopes of changing their fate through catching the lucrative high price markets of early varieties of vegetables.
Motabel Hossain said around 80,500 hectares of land have already been brought under vegetable cultivation in the region this year. The production target has been set at about 12.95 lakh tonnes from 87,763 hectare of land.
Around 20.42 lakh tonnes of vegetables are expected to be produced from 86,653 hectares of land in all eight districts of Rajshahi division during the current Rabi season.
