As afternoon comes, farmers bring in bitter gourd freshly lifted from their fields. Some in bags, some in plastic crates, they bring the vegetable to a particular spot in the village. Haggling and trading go on from dusk until night. The next morning that bitter gourd goes off by pickup to markets in Dhaka and other parts of the country.
The striking thing is that this is not a government-leased market. This wholesale trading centre for bitter gourd has grown up over about 15 years on an ordinary piece of ground inside the village.
The open ground in front of the mosque at Bakhera Komolgari village in Khetlal upazila, Joypurhat, is now known to bitter gourd growers of the surrounding villages as a wholesale selling centre.
Talking to local farmers and traders established that trading in bitter gourd began here this season about 15 days before the season started. Five or six wholesalers are currently buying bitter gourd regularly. On average 250 to 300 maunds of bitter gourd arrive at the centre each day. Trading goes on from afternoon until night. From the following morning until afternoon, this bitter gourd is sent by pickup to markets around the country.
A visit to the site found bitter gourd laid out in bags and plastic crates under a temporary tarpaulin shed in front of the village mosque. Bags and crates full of bitter gourd were piled up on one side. Several pickups stood nearby. Two farmers who had sold bitter gourd the previous evening were collecting their money from a wholesaler.
Farmers said selling bitter gourd here means less extra trouble for them. They simply lift the crop from the field and bring it straight to the selling centre. They do not have to take it to any other market, so there is no extra cost for transport, tolls or weighing allowances. They also often get a better price than at the local market. For these reasons many farmers from the surrounding villages now sell their bitter gourd here.
Local farmer Rafiqul Islam said: “I sold a maund of bitter gourd at 2,040 taka. The price was lower a few days ago. You get a better price here than at the market. That is why farmers in the area feel comfortable selling their bitter gourd here.”
Arrangements for getting the bitter gourd to different parts of the country after it is sold have also grown up around this village. The wholesalers collect the crop from farmers, sort it and pack it. It is then sent by pickup to various markets.
Wholesaler Babu Mondal said: “Two hundred and fifty to 300 maunds of bitter gourd come here every day. Trading goes on from afternoon until night. From the next morning until afternoon it is sent to Dhaka and other places around the country.”
Murshidul Islam, a local resident, said that because bitter gourd is widely grown in the surrounding fields, several wholesalers began buying it from farmers here about 15 years ago. The number of farmers and the quantity of bitter gourd gradually increased. In time the place became a known centre for the wholesale bitter gourd trade.
Farmers said that with the selling centre close to their fields, both their time and their transport costs are falling. They can lift bitter gourd from the field in the afternoon and sell it the same night in particular, which leaves them free to work in the fields again the next day.
Khetlal upazila sub-assistant agriculture officer Mostafizur Rahman said bitter gourd has been grown on 60 hectares of land in the upazila this season. The price of bitter gourd rises and falls with demand and supply. The agriculture department is advising farmers so that they receive a fair price, he said.
Cultivation of various vegetables is now increasing in Khetlal, an area known for rice and potatoes. Farmers are growing vegetables such as bitter gourd, pointed gourd, aubergine, snake gourd, bottle gourd and cucumber on higher land. Among them, this wholesale centre at Bakhera Komolgari village, built around bitter gourd, has become a local commercial arrangement that carries farmers’ produce straight to market.
There is no signboard, and none of the infrastructure of a formal leased market. Yet the place comes alive every day with the buying and selling of hundreds of maunds of bitter gourd. In the afternoon farmers bring in the crop from the fields, at night the haggling goes on, and in the morning that same bitter gourd rides off by pickup towards distant markets. In this way, over nearly a decade and a half, an ordinary piece of village ground has become an important wholesale selling centre for bitter gourd growers.