Johra Begum once suffered much to maintain his five-member family due to a severe financial crisis, but now she has made a fortune by cultivating bitter gourd in Mirerbari village of Kurigram’s Rajarhat upazila.

Chhinaye union is renowned for its vegetable farming, and now emerging as a thriving hub for bitter gourd production, locally known as ‘korola.’ Johra Begum benefits from bitter-gourd cultivation using the Mulching Method.

She has only 40 decimals of land while her husband Mansur Ali is a small wood trader who does not make much profit.

Last year, Johra Begum joined a local association due to her financial crisis, where she received training on vegetable farming and started farming on her land.

Earlier, she used to cultivate various vegetables including pepper, pointed gourd, gourd, bitter gourd and Snake gourd in the traditional system which failed to provide enough output.

This season, she has surprised local people by cultivating bitter gourds in the Mulching Method with eco-friendly polythene and receiving satisfactory profits due to bumper yield.

Johra Begum said, “Earlier, when I was involved with vegetable farming in the traditional way, it was quite difficult for me to feed my family. There was endless suffering and we faced a lot of trouble. I could hardly save any money after selling those vegetables.”

Johra Begum has received chemical fertilisers, vegetable seeds, eco-friendly polythene and financial assistance from an NGO ‘RDRS-Bangladesh’ due to being involved with the association. She bought some bamboo and made a bamboo net which she installed on the bitter gourd field. Besides, she has surrounded the field with nylon nets to protect the vegetable from livestock.

Johra Begum said, “I worked as a labourer on the field along with my husband and children. As a result, I was able to prepare the land by spending only Tk7,000. Sometimes, pesticides were sprayed into the bitter-gourd field.”

“The bitter-gourd cultivation in the mulching method provided early production compared to other vegetables. As a result, I was able to sell bitter-gourd in advance at a good price,” she said.

She started cultivating bitter gourd from the first week of January this year. The taste of medium sizes of bitter gourd is not too bitter and has huge demand among consumers in local markets.

In the beginning, she sold the bitter gourd at Tk2,400 per maund. So far, she has sold the bitter gourd worth more than Tk 60,000. She sells around two maunds of bitter gourd every week and expects to continue for the next two months.

Bidyeut Kumar Saha, Rangpur divisional team leader of RDRS-Bangladesh, said, “Normally bitter-gourd cultivation is more expensive than other vegetables. Besides, heavy rains and severe droughts cause extensive damage to the bitter gourd. But in the mulching method, the bitter-gourd plants remain more secure inside the polythene papers.”

To introduce farmers to smart agriculture, this programme is being conducted for underprivileged people in the area with financial support under the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), he added. 

Rajarhat Upazila Agriculture Officer Saifunnahar Shathi said, “Bitter gourd is one of the highly valued crops at present. A massive expansion in bitter gourd cultivation is possible if the farmers are properly informed about the Mulching Method which will subsequently, benefit the farmers”.