Bumper yield, price of pointed gourd make Rajshahi farmers happy

RAJSHAHI, Nov 3: The farmers in different upazilas of the district are happy over the bumper production and fair market price of pointed gourd this season.
The pointed gourds which are produced here are supplied to different districts including the capital Dhaka every day.
As the farmers are getting more profit from the pointed gourd farming, they have been showing more interest in its cultivation since the last couple of years, farmers said.
According to the sources at Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Rajshahi, "The farmers cultivated pointed gourd on 880 hectares of land this year. Of those, farmers of Mohanpur upazila cultivated the vegetable on 110 ha of land this season."
The sources further said, "The cultivation of pointed gourd is more risk-free than other crops and vegetable cultivation. A farmer can produce 14 metric tons of pointed gourds from one ha of land. They are showing more interest in its cultivation as they are getting all kinds of support from the upazila agriculture office."
While talking to The Daily Observer, Mobarak Hossain, a pointed gourd farmer, of Nuriakhetra village under Mohanpur upazila said, "I cultivated pointed gourd on 10 katha of land this year. I got its bumper production with fair price; so I am interested in cultivating it on more lands next year. Pointed gourd cultivation requires less cost than other vegetables. "
Some marginal farmers said that there is demand of pointed gourd round the year. It takes three months to get the harvest. Farmers can get pointed gourd eight months at a stretch. It takes Tk 70,000 to 75,000 to cultivate pointed gourd on per bigha of land.
Shahadat Hossain, a wholesaler of Bidirpur Bazaar in the upazila, said, "He and some others jointly started a business of selling pointed gourd from this season and have earned a quick profit of Tk 5 to 7 in per kg. Every day, we buy around 200 to 250 kg of pointed gourd and supply those to different districts including the capital city Dhaka."   
Deputy Director (DD) of the Rajshahi DAE Monjurul Haque said, "Pointed gourd is a high yielding vegetable, and it has round the year demand. After getting bumper production with fair market price, the farmers here are showing more interest in its cultivation, and it is increasing day by day."
The famers of almost all upazilas including Mohanpur, Godagari, Paba, Baghmara and Durgapur have cultivated pointed gourd this year, but those of Paba have cultivated it on more lands than others upazilas, he also said.
Now they are very happy getting fair market price with bumper production, the DD added.