Tropentag, September 17 - 19, 2013 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim "Agricultural development within the rural-urban continuum"

Study on Crop Diversification of Joymondop Locality in Bangladesh: A Case of Cauliflower Cultivation

¹Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften, Austria
²Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center (BPATC), Library and Training Aid, Bangladesh
³Geological Survey of Bangladesh, GIS and Remote Sensing, Bangladesh
⁴Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratories, Bangladesh

Abstract

Vegetables grown in Joymondop locality, Upazilla Singair, Manikganj District in Bangladesh are very much popular for the city dwellers as well as for the 3 star and 5 star rated hotels. Vegetable traders in Dhaka like produces of this area and buy them from the Joymondop Bazar at a fair price. Such access to wholesale market leads farmers switch to grow more vegetables in the area. The present study seeks to answer why the farmers changed their course of cultivation from cucumber to cauliflower as a cash earning crop.

Farmer's opinions and status of crop diversification were studied using qualitative methods of social domain research. Key findings of the study indicated that soil fertility, lower pest attack, good quality, better marketing facilities and high production with satisfactory economic benefits influenced farmers for switching to new vegetables like cauliflower. Farmers in the area started cauliflower cultivation 7-8 years ago. Before that they were intensively cultivating cucumber and carrot, but they encountered seed virus problems in cucumber and carrot. They also claimed that the syndication of the seed traders for hybrid cauliflower pushed them towards uncertainty. However, the big sized curd, curd quality and access to whole sale buyers at the farm gate or Joimondop market encouraged them to continue the cultivation of cauliflower. To ensure farmers benefits, and socio-economic development of the vegetable production, an active role of the local government was recommended for nullifying the syndication and seed problems in the area.

Keywords: Cauliflower, crop diversity, seed virus problem, social domain research, syndication of seed traders

Contact Address: Saiful Md. Islam, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften, Konrad Lorenzstr. 24, A-3430 Tulln, Austria, e-mail: saifpabhotmail.com