Momtaz makes a winter's gift available in summer

Momtaz Begum plucking summer tomato from her field in Khagrachhari while a local agriculture official giving her necessary advice. PHOTO: STAR

Momtaz and her husband Abdul Hye cultivated the tomato on 30 decimal land near their homestead in Amtali village. They earned more than Tk 60,000 by selling over 1000 kilograms of tomato in summer. They are expecting tomatoes worth at least Tk one lakh from the field in coming months.

Their success has encouraged many farmers in the area.

Abdul Hye gives all the credits to his wife for the success. "It is her determination and hard labour that we could do it", he told this correspondent during a visit to the village.

Unbelievable though, the plants will bear fruit till the end of February, Matiranga upazila Assistant Agriculture Officer Tofael Ahmed Chowdhury told this correspondent.

The Bari tomatoes are more tasty than those imported from a neighboring country. That's why its price is higher, Momtaz said.

"Tofael Ahmed advised us to go to Bari at Joydebpur in Gazipur district for training and to cultivate summer variety tomato. My husband took the training with a lukewarm attitude", Mamtaz said.

"After raining, we were given Tk 5,000 to raise sheds and BARI-4 and BARI-5 varieties of tomato seeds".

"But it was too small an amount. We spent more than Tk 40,000. The plants need to be protected from rain by erecting a polythene shed.

"We grew the crop under supervision of Matiranga Assistant Agriculture Officer Mohammad Tofael Ahamed", she said.

Mamtaz and her husband Abdul Hye were plucking tomato and nursing plants in their lands adjoining their homestead.

Other than the cost of sheds, the expenditure is similar to that needed for seasonal tomato, they said.

One-month-old seedlings were transplanted in fields in the second week of June. When flowering began in late July, they used a hormone named Tomaton, given by Bari.

Harvest started in the second week of August, they said.

Tofael Ahmed told this correspondent that Bari-4 and Bari-5 are 'indeterminate varieties', which will bear fruit till February if plants are nursed and fertilisers given in appropriate proportion. Each plant will yield at least five kilograms of tomato, he said.

Bari Principal Scientific Officer Showkat Mallik, who came on a visit here said Bari tomato has great prospect in the hill tracts because of favourable weather.