Fortune smiles on cauliflower growers

Bumper yield and good market price have brought smile to cauliflower growers in Rangpur region this season.

Local farmers are making a handsome profit by selling the winter vegetable to the buyers from different parts of the country since the harvesting started in mid-January that would continue till the end of March.

A number of farmers in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram said due to favourable weather conditions they have an unexpected production of cauliflower this season.

Although the cultivation cost has increased a bit this year, compared to the last year, they are selling each cauliflower, weighing 900 grams to 1kg, to the wholesale buyers at Tk 20 to Tk 22, which was Tk 8 to Tk 9 during this time last year, they said.

Farmer Shafiqul Islam of Fulgachh village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila said he planted 17,000 cauliflower seedlings on his four bighas of land, spending about Tk 1 lakh, this season.

"Only two week ago I sold 1,200 cauliflowers at Tk 28 per piece, which is now selling for Tk 20 to Tk 22," he said, adding that he is expecting to earn a profit of over Tk 2.5 lakh by the end of the season.

Shafiqul said last year he managed to earn a profit of Tk 62,000 by selling cauliflowers, cultivated on six bighas land.

Prabhat Chandra Sen, another grower from Baidyerbazar area in Kurigram's Rajarhat upazila, said last year he grew cauliflower on 8 bighas of land, but this year he cultivated the item on 6 bighas land.

The cultivation cost of cauliflower has increased this season, but they are still getting a handsome profit due to good market price of the vegetable this season, he said.

Cauliflower growers are getting a good profit by selling their produces as prices of all types of vegetables is much higher this year, he added.

Maqbul Hossain, a vegetable vendor at Pauro Bazar in Kurigram town, said though supply of cauliflower is a bit less in local markets this season, its price is quite satisfactory for the growers.

According to data obtained from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), cauliflowers have been cultivated on 14,000 hectares of land in different upazilas of Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Nilphamari and Rangpur districts this year.

About 33,000 to 34,000 pieces of cauliflower can be cultivated on each hectare, DAE sources said.