Cultivation of vitamin A enriched improved varieties of sweet potatoes is getting popular in Gaibandha Sadar and Fulchhari upazilas, as poor people in remote rural areas are using the item as alternative to traditional main food items like rice and wheat.

International Potato Research Center in collaboration with voluntary organisation Brac extended cooperation for the cultivation of vitamin A enriched sweet potato that requires very small production cost.

This year over 2500 men and women of 28 villages in seven unions of the two upazilas cultivated the improved varieties of sweet potatoes, including Bari-4 variety on 52 hectares, Bari-8 on 100 hectares, Kamola Sundari on 230 hectares, and Tripti on 93 hectares, said sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).

Besides, local variety of sweet potato was cultivated on 275 hectares of land, they said.

The estimated yield is 29 tonnes per hectare.

Sweet potato, presently selling for Tk 12 to 15 a kg, is cheaper than other food crops, said locals, adding that poor people in remote char lands eat sweet potato instead of rice and wheat.

"Spending Tk 1200 to 1500 for cultivation of sweet potato on a bigha of land, a farmer can get 25 to 30 maunds of yield. The potato plants are also used as vegetable," said Golzer Ali, a potato grower of Ratanpur village in Fulchhari upazila.

The improved varieties of sweet potato will help to remove vitamin A deficiency for the expectant mothers and children and fight against night blindness and eye sight problem, said Shah Moazzem Hossain, district marketing manager of Brac.

"We arranged special trainings on cultivation of improved variety of sweet potatoes and got good response," said AKM Ruhul Amin, deputy director of DAE, Gaibandha.