Commercial tomato cultivation using the mulching method has begun in Kotchandpur, Jhenaidah. Interest among growers is rising because the method lets them bring in a crop in a short time at low cost. Upazila agriculture officer Zahid Hossain said seven farmers will be given government demonstration plots to encourage growers, as higher yields can be obtained.
According to sources concerned, tomatoes are now grown in two seasons in Kotchandpur — one in winter and one in summer. Winter tomatoes have long been grown, and many farmers take up the crop. Growers who can get their tomatoes to market at the start of the season get a good price; as supply to the market increases, prices fall, and growers are then deprived of a fair price. Summer-season cultivation, meanwhile, began in Kotchandpur a few years ago. This year only 7.5 bighas of land in the upazila have been planted with BARI Hybrid 8 tomatoes by the mulching method.
Faruk Hossain, a mulching-method tomato grower of Talsar village, said: “For the past five or six years I have grown only tomatoes. Tomatoes can now be grown twice a year. I grew winter tomatoes right beside this, and production was good. Over the past three months I sold 30 to 35 thousand taka worth from seven kathas of land. Now I am raising summer tomato seedlings on the land again, and this is being done by the mulching method. Growing this way needs less fertiliser, less medicine and less irrigation. Labour costs are lower too.”
Explaining why, he said the soil is prepared with fertiliser, medicine and irrigation before the seedlings are planted. Beds are then made for planting, and mulching beds are formed with polythene. Seedlings are planted through holes made in the polythene at set places. Because the beds stay covered with polythene the soil does not dry out easily and retains moisture, so frequent irrigation is not needed. Once mulching is done it can serve two or three crops by the same method, so the cost of the next crop falls further.
He said production costs, including mulching, planting, fertiliser and medicine, come to 10,000 taka; if the weather is favourable and production is good, a profit of 50,000 to 60,000 taka is possible. “My advice to anyone who wants to grow it is to grow it exactly the way I have. If those farmers come to me I will give them every kind of advice and help to grow it,” he said.
Kotchandpur upazila agriculture officer Zahid Hossain said only 7.5 bighas of land in the upazila have been planted with BARI Hybrid 8 tomatoes by the mulching method this year. Interest among growers is rising because they can bring in a crop in a short time at low cost. Seven farmers will be given government demonstration plots this year to encourage them towards the mulching method, he said.
Tomatoes from the winter-to-summer season fetch high prices and production is good, he said, adding that with proper care a yield of 100 to 120 maunds per bigha is possible.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report