Growers are getting lucrative prices for the newly harvested vegetable besides other early variety winter vegetables, making consumers in general also happy
Farming of beans has been gaining popularity everywhere in Rajshahi region, including its vast Barind tract, for the last couple of years as a result of the rising number of commercial farmers farming the cash crop.
Abdul Mazid, 35, a farmer of Soipara village under Mohanpur upazila in the district, has already sold beans valued around Taka 65,000 from his farming field in the current season. He is delighted with the good yield and lucrative market prices of the vegetable.
Mazid has cultivated the vegetable on around one bigha of land commercially. Each kilogram of the vegetable is being sold at Taka 40-45 from his farming field directly at present, while it is being sold at Tk 60-70 in retail markets.
He is hoping to sell beans worth over Tk 2 lakh from his field this season.
Large numbers of farmers like Abdul Mazid are now engaged in bean cultivation commercially considering its economic prospect after the best uses of modern technologies and high yielding varieties like Ghritakanchan and Rupbhan.
Beans cultivation has become an effective means of bringing fortune for many farmers in the region comprising 25 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts in both summer and winter seasons, said Jahangir Alam Khan, project coordinator of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM).
He said the farmers are becoming habituated to cultivating beans on homesteads, demarcating lands of paddy fields and other catchment areas as they are earning money regularly.
Marginal farmers and the poor people in the region are mostly engaged in this venture by making the best use of spaces around their homes over the last couple of years.