Rajshahi, July 7: Around 18,000 tonnes of summer green chili is expected to be produced from 8,700 hectares of land in all eight districts under Rajshahi division during the current Kharif-1 cropping season.Target has been set to produce around 8,000 tonnes of chili from 3,625 hectares of land in Rajshahi, Chapainawabgonj, Naogaon and Natore districts under Rajshahi Agricultural Zone while another 10,000 tonnes from 5,075 hectares of land in Bogura, Joypurhat, Pabna and Sirajgonj districts under Bogura Agricultural Zone.
Sudhendra Nath Roy, Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said the region has been producing chili along with other vegetables round the year enormously for a long time.
Presently, the local kitchen markets and other growth centres have become plentiful with the newly harvested chilli and other summer vegetables.
Agriculturist Sudhen Roy said farmers are also happy after getting both good yield and market price of the summer chili everywhere in the region including its vast Barind tract.
Locals said the price of green chili nearly doubled on the city’s kitchen markets over the past couple of days. The price of green chili rose by Taka 50-60 a kilogram and the item was selling for Taka 130 to 150 a kg on Sunday and Monday.
Traders said that the price of green chili witnessed a sharp rise due to various reasons including monsoon caused damage to farmlands, leading to a supply shortage of the item on the city markets.
Monwar Hossain, 45, a farmer of Soipara village under Mohanpur Upazila, said he had cultivated green chili on 20-katha land this season. He has sold a total of 115 kilograms of chili at the rate of Tk 85 per kg on an average. He is happy after getting a fair price.
Abdus Samad, another farmer of Nuriakhetra village in Mohanpur Upazila said he had cultivated green chili on one bigha of land last year and got good yield and price. This time, he cultivated the spicy cash crop on two bighas of land and sold chili with good profit over the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, Kharkhori Green Chili Market under Paba Upazila in Rajshahi district has been bustling with bountiful summer chili and farmers and traders for the last couple of weeks.
The trading-spree is growing gradually with increasing numbers of buyers and sellers. After buying from the haat, the chili is sent to different parts of the country. Growers from the surrounding upazilas bring their chili to the market and sell at wholesale rates.
Rawshan Ali, President of the market committee, said about 30 metric tons of green chili are sold in this market daily. The wholesalers send eight to ten truckloads of chili to different parts of the country including Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet every day.
A wholesaler of the haat said he buys 3,000-kg of chili every day, and sent those to Chattogram.
On the other hand, the DAE has set a target of producing around 8.85 lakh tonnes of summer vegetables from 49,870 hectares of land in the division during the current Kharif-1 season.
The entire kitchen markets in the region are currently bustling with all summer vegetables like red amaranth, bottle gourd, spinach, lady’s finger, pointed gourd, bitter gourd, pumpkin and brinjal benefiting both growers and consumers.
Vegetable farming brings a smile on farmers’ faces here as they are becoming financially solvent by cultivating various types of vegetables, meeting its growing demand of the consumers despite Covid-19 pandemic situation.
