Vegetable farming has become a lucrative venture for farmers improving their livelihoods and fortune alongside boosting the rural economy in Rangpur agriculture region in recent years.
 
Even during the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine War, many people have been successfully cultivating vegetables on farmlands, char areas and homesteads and meeting nutrition alongside earning better profits to lead a normal life.
 
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said vegetables are cultivated round the year during the Rabi, Kharif-1 and Kharif-2 seasons bringing self-reliance to many farmers in all five districts of the region.
 
Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Mohammad Shah Alam said vegetable farming adopting newer cropping patterns and technologies has become a profitable scheme under the changed climate conditions in recent times.
 
"Side by side with huge government assistance and easy-term agri-loans, some NGOs are also providing quality seeds, inputs and latest technologies to farmers to boost vegetable production round the year in the region," he said.
 
After getting repeated bumper output with excellent market prices every year during the last 13 years, farmers are bringing more lands under vegetable farming in the region both in the mainland and char areas since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
During the last Rabi season, farmers produced over 10.10 lakh tonnes of vegetables from 40,116 hectares of land at the average yield rate of 25.18 tonnes per hectare of land in the region.
 
"Similarly, farmers produced 4,89,044 tonnes of vegetables from 27,150 hectares of land at an excellent average yield rate of 18.01 tonnes per hectare of land during the just-ended Kharif-1 season in the region," Alam said.
 
Besides, farmers have cultivated vegetables on 14,424 hectares of land during the current Kharif-2 season in Rangpur agriculture region where harvesting of the vegetables is continuing now.
 
"If the climatic conditions remain favourable, a bumper production of over 2.27 lakh tonnes of summer vegetables is likely during this Kharif-2 season in the region," Alam added.
 
Market sources said Kharif-2 vegetables have already appeared in plenty in local markets with excellent prices making farmers happy.
 
Talking to BSS, farmers Mohan Ali, Nurul Islam, Solaiman Ali and Abdul Hye of different villages in Rangpur said they achieved self-reliance by cultivating vegetables on their farm-lands and homesteads during the past 13 years.
 
"Getting excellent prices during the Covid-19 pandemic, farmers are expanding cultivation of vegetables on farmlands and homesteads to reap more profits and meet nourishment," said farmer Manik Mian of village Darshona in Rangpur Sadar.
 
Vegetable retailer Fazlur Rahman at Keranipara Kitchen Market in Rangpur city said farmers sold Kharif-2 vegetables at rates between Taka 40 and Taka 110 per kilogram on an average depending on varieties and quality to the middlemen and wholesalers.
 
"Retail prices are, however, higher by Taka 10 to Taka 20 per kilogram on an average in local markets as some vegetables perished during the transportation and marketing process," Rahman added.
 
Rangpur Chamber President Mostafa Sohrab Chowdhury Titu said the agriculture sector has literally kept the rural economy moving onward in Rangpur region, especially during the global crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine War.
 
"Setting up an adequate number of agro-based industries has become a need of the time in the region to process produced vegetables for enhancing export to earn foreign exchange to further strengthen the national economy," he said.