Cultivate large size garlic
Photo: Liton Rahman / Driknews
Bangladesh has been importing sizeable amounts of garlic from abroad to meet the local demand for the last couple of decades. The size of local variety of garlic is very small, about 10 to 20 grams each. The size of imported garlic is 150 to 250 grams each, that is, ten times heavier than the local variety. I have watched in a television programme that in the Ohio State of the USA, a carnival is organised every year where garlic is displayed. The biggest garlic shown there was more than 300 grams. Usually, in Bangladesh large size garlic are imported from China. The soil of Bangladesh in general is very fertile. Almost all types of plants can grow here. Once it was thought that teak plant would not grow in Bangladesh but it proved to be wrong. Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) can import large size garlic seeds from the USA and China like it imports potato seeds from the Netherlands and sell those to the garlic growers of every district. About five decades ago, the BADC started importing potato seeds. Bangladesh grows its full requirement of potato and also exports some quantity now. We hope that Bangladesh will be able to grow large size garlic to meet its local demand within a couple of years and thus save valuable foreign currency. Only an initiative from the BADC is needed.
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