Zakir Azad, Cumilla

Farmers are in trouble with radish is one of the ingredients of winter vegetables. At the beginning of the season, this vegetable was out of reach of the lower class people.

Due to the competitive cultivation of farmers, the crop fields are flooded with radish. With the yield of radish being several times higher than the demand, the sky-high price has come down to the ground in one jump. Radish, which used to cost 70-80 taka per kg, is now not being sold for even a taka! Due to the lack of value of radish, farmers and traders are turning away from the land. As a result, radish fields are being destroyed one after another.

It is learned that after the crops of most of the land in the district were destroyed in the last monsoon, the farmers of this district started cultivating radish and cauliflower more. Although they were more profitable at the beginning of the season, those who cultivated radish after a gap of one month are in trouble.

At the beginning of the season, radishes from one hundred acres of land were sold for 4-5 thousand taka. And after a month, radishes from one hundred acres of land are not being sold for even 100 taka. In the hope of profit, many vegetable traders have pledged the price of radishes from the fields and are not coming to the area without paying the next money due to fear of greater losses.

According to the Upazila Agricultural Extension Department, radishes have been cultivated on 70 hectares of land in Chandina Upazila. Farmers have benefited from the sale of radishes from at least 20 hectares of land in the first season. They are in trouble with radishes from at least 50 hectares of land in the next season. Sobu Mia, a farmer from Kishmat Srimantapur village of Chandina, said, I have cultivated radishes on 15 percent of my land. When the radish plants are small, they come to the land of the traders. But whenever the radishes grow, no one comes to buy them. About 13 thousand taka has been spent on my land. But no one says the price of radishes is even 1 thousand taka. The cost of lifting radishes from the land cannot be met by selling them. Due to which radishes are being wasted in the land.

Now each radish weighs about 2-3 kg. Chandina Upazila Agriculture Officer Morshed Alam said that it is the responsibility of the Marketing Department of the Agriculture Department to get the value of the crops produced by the farmers. We try to increase production by providing seeds, fertilizers and necessary information.

The extent to which farmers have suffered in radish cultivation this year is likely to lead to a shift towards winter vegetable cultivation in the future.