Bumper yield and good prices of early winter vegetables has brought smiles to the farmers in the district.

With abundant supply of a variety of winter vegetables in the local markets, traders from different districts including Dhaka and Narayanganj are collecting the items from the farmers and small traders in the district.

Farmers have cultivated different vegetables on 4,254 hectares of land in the district in Kharip-2 season that starts immediately after the receding of water at the end of the rainy season, said sources in the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).

During a recent visit to different villages, this correspondent saw that farmers piled up newly harvested vegetables including bitter gourd, bottle gourd, brinjal, cauliflower and cabbage alongside roads wherefrom traders are buying those to send to different places of the country. 

"I cultivated early variety of bitter gourd on one acre of land spending Tk 1.3 lakh and already sold the crop worth Tk 90,000. I hope to sell the crop worth Tk 1 lakh more as reaping will continue for the next one and a half months," said Ananta Roy, 27, of Yakubpur village in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila.  

Md Yunus Ali, 48, a vegetable trader from Bhadrajugani Pukurpar village in Munshiganj district, said he started buying bitter gourd from Thakurgaon in the second week of October and supplying it to different places including Karwan Bazar in Dhaka.

"In the beginning I had to pay Tk 2,300 for a maund of bitter gourd but now I am buying it for Tk 700. By selling 100 maunds of bitter gourd in Dhaka I make a profit of Tk 10,000-20,000," he said.

Moksed Ali of Bottoli village in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila said he has cultivated bottle gourd on 12 decimals of land spending Tk 5,000 and already sold about 400 pieces for Tk 8,000.

"I hope to sell more 400 pieces of the vegetable," he said. 

Cultivation of early winter vegetables sees gradual increase in the district as the farmers get good return, said Arshed Ali, deputy director of the DAE in Thakurgaon.

The yield is good this season due to favourable weather and smooth supply of seeds and fertilisers, he said.