Dinajpur tomato farmers feeling the heat

High temperatures through March and April in Dinajpur have seen the mercury rise to 4 degrees Celsius beyond average. While the stifling weather affects everyone, none are feeling the heat more than the district's tomato farmers.

"I cultivated tomatoes on 7 bighas of land," says Shishir Kumar Roy of Chirirbandar upazila. "The nearly 200 maund yield per bigha is good but I couldn't make any profit because the crop ripened suddenly, within the span of ten days."

For tomatoes, the unusually hot weather has brought on fast ripening, resulting in a glut of tomatoes in the marketplace unmatched by demand.

Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials confirmed that the fast ripening is due to the abnormal heat. Moreover tomato plants are suffering from various diseases including leaf curling and wilting diseases, the latter commonly referred to locally as "heart attack".

"If a plant is attacked by one of these diseases, it dies fast," says Julfiquer Haider, the DAE's additional director for Dinajpur region.

With the twin incentives of fast ripening and saving the tomatoes of diseased plants the race is on for farmers to harvest. Many growers bring tomatoes to market daily to get the most out of their crop.

Tomato trader Sumon Mia of Dhaka's Karwan Bazar says the usual season for collecting tomatoes from Dinajpur is April to May. "We start in Dinajpur," he says, "before moving on to districts like Panchargarh, usually by the end of May."

But this year nearby districts are also experiencing an early crop, with the market saturated. "The price was high at first," Sumon Mia adds, "but has dropped to Tk. 350 per 40 kilograms."

For farmers who have spent around Tk. 40,000 per bigha producing the crop, this is not good news. Nor can traders buy larger amounts for later.

"I can't buy beyond my current demand because tomatoes are highly perishable," says Saiful Islam, a trader from Chittagong.

"Tomato farmers are facing losses for the abnormal heat," says Mossadeque Hossain, president of Dinajpur's chamber of commerce. "Only if we have some rain will the situation improve." Along with many farmers, he regrets that there aren't any tomato preservation and processing facilities in Dinajpur.

According to the DAE, 2,844 hectares in Dinajpur district were planted with tomatoes this year, with a further 2,252 hectares of tomatoes grown in Panchagarh and 188 hectares in Thakurgaon.