Farmers Field Day on Tomato Demonstration

On 19 March 2018, SNV in Bangladesh arranged a Farmers Field Day to a tomato demonstration through Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The tomato demonstration took place at the Hamirkudsha Union, Bagmara sub-district of the Rajshahi District. 30 farmers from the “Hamirkudsha Safe Tomato Producer Group” and about 170 farmers from other producer groups participated in the event. The event was part of the project “Sustainable consumption & production of tomato & mango products in Bangladesh” funded by the European Commission and implemented by SNV and its partners Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) and Centre of Excellence Agro Food Skills Foundation (CEAFS).

The field day enhanced farmers’ knowledge on GAP and acted as an information sharing platform on the technologies used for a safe production of tomato. Including the use of sex pheromone trap, clean cultivation and judicial application of pesticides.

The opening ceremony of the event was opened by Md. Jahirul Islam (SNV District Coordinator) with a speech highlighting the project and the tomato GAP demonstration. The chief guest of the event, Md. Rajibur Rahman (Upazila Agriculture Officer, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Ministry of Agriculture, Bagmara, Rajshahi) emphasised the fundamental contribution of GAP to ensure safe processed products. Md. Saif Abdullah (Agricultural Extension Officer, Bagmara, Rajshahi) and Md. Abdul Mannan (Assistant Agricultural Extension Officer, Bagmara, Rajshahi) attended the event as special guests and expressed interest in extending the DAE cooperation in implementing the project activities. Among the other participants in the event: Md. Nurul Islam (DAE Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer), Shariful Islam (Ispahani Deputy Executive),  Abdur Rahman and Abdul Mannan (SNV's field facilitators) and Md. Afzal Hossain (farmer group representative). The event was moderated by Samir Roy (SNV field facilitator).

During the GAP demonstration, Md. Afzal Hossain shared his learnings and success on the use of different technologies while Md. Anower Hossain (Hamirkudsha Union Parishad Chairman) closed the day as Chairperson of the event.