Colour cauliflower, a new variety of cauliflower has been adding colour to farmers' life. The farmers in six Jhenaidah upazilas are producing above 408 tonnes of the new vegetables abide their traditional coli flower in the season. Vitamin and mineral- enriched colour cauliflower will help meet the nutrition demand of the consumers, said officials of the department of agricultural extension (DAE) in Jhenaidah Khamarbari.
When this correspondent visited a number of kitchen markets in Jhenaidah, witnessed almost every vegetable vendor was selling the violet and deep yellow colour cauliflowers abide the tradition off-white colour ones. As the winter vegetables prices falling gradually, each kilogram of the cauliflower was selling at Taka 20.
Vegetable vendor Ripon Sheikh at Jhenaidah kitchen market said, he had purchased the same at Taka 15 each kilogram from the growers and selling at Taka 20 now. They were selling the same at Taka 30 to 40 a few days back. As the variety was new to the consumers, most of the people were not showing eagerness. It will take some time as the taste was proved better the consumers had expressed their opinion to the sellers, Ripon Sheikh said.
A source related to the office of the deputy director of the DAE in Jhenaidah, the farmers have been producing the colour cauliflower on a total of 3.4 hectares of land and on a total of 17 demonstration plots in the season. Each demonstration plot was covering 20 decimals of land. Upazila-wise breakup of the demonstration plots was four decimals in Jhenaidah sadar and Shailkupa each, three plots in Kaliganj and Moheshpur each, two plots in Harinakundu and a single plot in Kotchandpur upazila, the sources said.
The farmers in the district had produced ordinary variety of the cauliflower on a total of 17.30 hectares of land in the current season and produced 41,503 tones. Average yield on each hectare was 24 tonnes, the DAE sources said.
Deputy Director of DAE in Jhenaidah Khamarabri, Asgar Ali when contacted said the colour variety was introduced among the farmers through demonstration plots a few years back. Each and every farmer and common consumers was not enough aware of the vegetables. But it is expected the new variety will occupy the market and gain popularity among the common people when they will be benefited from vegetable day by day. The DAE official said ordinary variety contains only mineral, while the colour variety contains huge Vitamin B-1, B-2 and B-12. The variety will help reduce the physical troubles of the people suffering from both minerals and Vitamin-B related complications. The farmers engaged in cultivating colour cauliflower, will also be benefited much, the DAE deputy director said.
