Tomato occupies Patenga after watermelon goes
Farmers picking fresh tomatoes from the farmlands of Patenga in Chittagong. Inset, tomatoes ready to be taken to the market for sale. Farmers have turned to tomato cultivation on some 250 hectares of land in the area, once famous for their succulent watermelons. The photos were clicked recently. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das
The famous mouth-watering dark-green variety of watermelon of Patenga has become totally extinct and is replaced by tomato cultivation in a vast area. Watermelon cultivation in coastal Patenga was badly hurt by the 1991 cyclone. Before that disaster, farmers of the area used to grow around 3,750 tonnes of watermelons a year in 250 hectares of land with 15 to 16 tonnes of yield per hectare. Ever since the cyclone, farmers and local agricultural scientists have tried several times to revive farming of that large, sweet watermelon. This year, local agri-scientists said they have more or less given up the hope. Instead farmers of Patenga turned to tomato farming. Metropolitan Agriculture Officer Nasir Uddin said Patenga watermelons were unique as that variety used to grow only in this region. Explaining the reason behind the extinction of the variety, he said the 1991 cyclone brought in tidal waves onto the melon fields and increased soil salinity. The original seed of that variety kept with the farmers gradually got lost within the next few years. Later on, the agri-scientists brought in high quality watermelon seeds from Japan, Nasir said, adding that they tried to bring back the watermelon glory even last year but in vain. "That means, whatever you might have bought in the name of Patenga watermelons in recent years is all fake," said a Patenga farmer Abdus Salam with a smile. "Even last year I found many traders in Sylhet selling watermelons branding those as Patenga's," said Salam, a former melon grower, who now finds hope in tomato. Local cultivators and agriculture officials said this year in approximately 250 hectares of land in Chowdhurypara, Maizpara, Nazirpara, Fulcharipara, Charpara, Bijoynogor, and East Katgor of Patenga tomato has been grown. The farmers expect to produce more than 650 tonnes of tomato this season. Meeting the local demand, tomatoes are supplied to different parts of Chittagong city and beyond, said a tomato wholesaler Mohammad Faruk. Mohammed Nasir, another tomato cultivator of Nazirpara, shared his story about how the farmers switched to tomato cultivation. “In 1995, a few farmers started growing tomato on a small scale. Their success made others to follow the lead.” On an average, farmers spend around Tk 75,000 per hectare of land and earn double the amount by selling tomatoes. But it is not always an easy profit. A farmer of Chowdhurypara, Abul Hashem, said growers are often compelled to sell their produces at low prices in roadside bazars because of a lack of a market that absorbs huge amount of tomatoes. In addition, there has been an increased rate of diseases infecting tomato plants in recent years, which is raising production cost due to additional spending on pesticides. Agriculture Officer Nasir said wilting and leaf curling are two major diseases that have increased over the years due to repeated tomato cultivation in the same land. “We are advising farmers to adopt 'Crop Rotation' method that discourages growing a vegetable in succession”. The farmers can grow any other vegetable in between the two periods of tomato cultivation to prevent the diseases that spread mainly for repeated cultivation of the same crop. Tomato production may go down in the coming years if crop rotation method is not adopted, Nasir cautioned.
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