Behind the Scene

From Moulvibazar
Self Reliance Through Growing Vegetables


Rajat Kanti Goswami

Once a landless farmer, Dilip Kumar Dey is now financially solvent and self-reliant. He has grown vegetables and this enterprise has radically improved his life. Even just a few years back, Dilip Kumar was working as a day laborer. Now, his yearly income is several lakhs. This year, he cultivated brinjal, sweet pumpkin potatoes and tomatoes on his land.

He has produced bizarrely large sweet pumpkins, each weighting 25 to 27 kg, on his land. Dilip Kumar claims that he is the only one who has been able to grow pumpkins as large as the ones he has.

Dilip Kumar Dey is from the village of Khusalpur under Munshibazar Union of Kamalganj Upazila in the Moulvibazar district. He started cultivating vegetables five years ago. He saw his neighbors do the same thing and decided to try his hand. He had no land of his own at first. He started by leasing little bits of land from others. That year, he
made a profit, which encouraged him to go on. “After I started cultivating vegetables, I earned more in six months than I had before over the duration of any given year”, said Dilip Kumar Dey.

Gradually Dilip started to get more efficient. He grew brinjal, sweet pumpkins, tomatoes and potatoes. Dilip said, he has invested taka 12 thousand towards tomato cultivation, but he has earned taka 52 thousand in revenue by selling them. He also sold sweet pumpkins worth taka 2500. He hopes that he will be able to sell the sweet pumpkins for taka 5000 or more. He thinks of himself as an optimist. His projected income for the year is over a lakh.

His two sons are Liton Dey, 22 and Opel Dey, 17. Both of them help out their father in the field. He has another 7 year old son and a daughter. Dilip's wife passed away eight years ago, when his household was still poverty stricken. “I have finally become solvent, but my wife is no longer with us to see this success”, Dilip Kumer Dey laments.

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2007