‘Bagging’ helps aubergine farmers in Chapainwabganj

Use of ‘fruit-bagging’ technique to grow aubergine has helped farmers get a good crop in the northern district of Chapainawabganj.

Chapainawabganj Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 7 Feb 2016, 07:59 AM
Updated : 7 Feb 2016, 01:07 PM

While the common practice is to use pesticides to prevent bug attacks on the vegetables, Jalal Uddin of Baharam village in the Sadar Upazila wrapped each aubergine with a specially-made plastic bag imported from China soon after it started growing.

That way, he not only managed to save additional costs on chemical pesticides or fungicides, but also could offer 100 percent chemical-free aubergines to the consumers, who responded very well.

Talking to bdnews24.com, Jalal said he had planted the saplings of an eggplant variety, locally known as ‘Gheon Begun’, but insect and fungal attacks almost ruined the whole of his crop.

He then consulted a government agriculture department employee and started using the bagging technique on 150 aubergines.

“I was surprised to see the fall in bug attacks on the eggplants. I did not need to use insecticides after the aubergines started growing,” he says.

After the successful experiment, he used the method in an aubergine garden on a 25-decimal piece of land.

While his production cost was about only Tk 5,000, Jalal has already sold aubergines worth Tk 15,000 and looks set for making another Tk 15,000 in the next couple of months.

“Since these are chemical free, they are in demand. I do not even have to take them to any market. Buyers come to my garden and buy them from there,” says Jalal.

Ruhul Amin and Momena Begum of the same village had come to buy some eggplants from him.

The chemical-free farming of aubergines attracted them come to Jalal, they said.

Senior Scientific Officer Md Sharaf Uddin of the Regional Horticulture Research Centre say farmers often resort to excessive use of insecticides to fend off bugs and fungus, which is hazardous both for human health and environment. “It also increases the production cost.”

But the fruit-bagging method can save farmers from all these hassles, he says.

The aubergines should be wrapped in the plastic bags two or three days after they start sprouting because the older they get, the more vulnerable they become to pest attacks, according to him.

“This will cost only Tk 1.5-2.5 per kilogramme of aubergines,” Sharaf Uddin adds.