RAJSHAHI: Speaker at a discussion in Rajshahi observed that more public awareness has become an urgent need for debarring the growers and traders from ripening immature tomato with harmful chemicals to protect the public health from bad effects, reports BSS. They viewed that many growers and traders use harmful chemicals for ripening tomato due to their ignorance. So, the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and other agencies concerned should work together to prevent the malpractice. The observation came at the meeting of district level monitoring committee to resist ripening fruit with chemicals according to the guideline held at the conference hall of Deputy Commissioner Wednesday afternoon. With Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury, deputy commissioner and president of the committee, in the chair, Deputy Director of DAE Hazrat Ali and its Additional Deputy Director Saleh Ahmed, District Fisheries Officer Golam Rabbani, Additional District Animal Resource Officer Zulfikar Md Akhtar Hossain and General Secretary of local unit CAB Golam Mostofa Mamun took part in the discussion. The meeting discussed and devised ways and means on how to prevent the farmers and traders from using chemicals in fruit. It decided to hold a large-scale workshop in Godagari during the forthcoming tomato harvesting season with participation of administrative and DAE officials, experts, media personnel, farmers, traders and other stakeholders.
DC Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury said: “Green tomatoes are often harvested and artificially ripened.” The malpractice creates a widespread concern among the public in general which is detrimental to the prospective tomato farming. “We have to work collectively to protect the huge tomato farming and marketing in Godagari,” said the DC. Hazrat Ali told the meeting that tomatoes are widely cultivated in almost all 400 villages in Godagari upazila in the past decade. The total land under tomato cultivation doubled in the last seven years, while yield tripled.
In 2014-15, about 90 per cent of the district’s total tomato cultivation on 4,725 hectares was recorded in the Godagari upazila yielding around 1.50 lakh tonnes. This year, tomato is expected to be cultivated on around 5,300 hectares of land. Sowing tomato seeds starts in September.
Many even begin cultivation in August to catch the market early. The plants start bearing fruits in 60 to 90 days and each plant yields up to seven or eight times a season. Harvests begin in November and continue till end-February. He said tomato farming gained momentum eight years ago when some multinational seed companies brought in some variety hybrid seeds to Godagari.