Bumper sweet potato harvest : Farmers happy with prices in Sarishabari
Mustak Ahamed Monir, Sarishabari (Jamalpur)
There has been a bumper harvest of sweet potatoes in Sarishabari, Jamalpur. Farmers are busy harvesting potatoes from the fields. This year, due to favorable weather conditions, there has been a bumper harvest of sweet potatoes and good market prices, which has brought smiles of satisfaction to the farmers.
According to the Upazila Agriculture Office, farmers cultivate sweet potatoes in various areas of the upazila including Dharabarsha, Barabaria, Koijuri, Kandarpara, Syedpur, Boyasingh, Bhatara, Mohanganj, Kasharipara, Pakhadubi, Fulbaria, Parpara, Gopinathpur, Krishnapur, Char Haripur, Aona, Pogaldigha. Farmers in the char areas are leaning towards sweet potato cultivation as it is low cost and profitable. When visiting Kamrabad and Bhatara unions in the upazila, one can see that vast areas are covered with green leaves.
Farmers are digging the soil with spades. And women and children are collecting potatoes and keeping them in one place. Later, the farmers are measuring and bagging the collected sweet potatoes right in the field. Some are taking the sweet potato vines home in horse-drawn carts as fodder for their cattle. Local farmers Abdul Hai, Sadek Ali, Rashedul Islam and many others said that sweet potatoes mature underground a few months after planting and the Upashi hybrid variety can be harvested in 90 days. This time, there has been a bumper harvest in potato cultivation.
The demand for sweet potatoes is very high in Dhaka. Therefore, wholesalers buy 1,000 to 1,200 taka per maund from the area and sell them at a higher price. Wholesalers buy these sweet potatoes by going around the char areas, and many times, many wholesale buyers buy potatoes from the field. Later, these sweet potatoes are transported by truck to different parts of the country including Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet.
Sweet potato farmer Abdul Motaleb said, This season, I have cultivated sweet potatoes on many fallow lands in Charancharlar, especially on about 1 acre of land along the river. The yield of sweet potatoes has been more than two maunds per cent. I have obtained sweet potatoes in one bigha of land in excess of one hundred maunds. I am selling sweet potatoes wholesale at 14/13/12 hundred taka per maund. The price fluctuates slightly depending on demand and yield. It cost about 25 thousand taka to cultivate 1 bigha of land. I have made a lot of profit excluding the cost. It is not possible to make so much profit by doing any other crop."
In this regard, Upazila Agriculture Officer and Agriculturist Anup Singha said, this year's target was to cultivate sweet potatoes on 580 hectares of land in this upazila. But 675 hectares were cultivated. Which is 95 hectares more than the target. Farmers in the char areas are leaning towards cultivating sweet potatoes as the cost of production is lower and it is more profitable.
