Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of Bangladesh and very recent successful operation of regular sustainable commercial vegetable cultivation of its horticulture division has given a new dimension to the Agriculture Sector in strengthening economy of this country. Considering the importance of horticultural crops in shaping the country’s socio-economic as well as cultural status, poverty eradication and ensuring nutritional security BRAC intervened into this horticultural sector of Bangladesh and started its vegetable seed distribution program to its beneficiaries after independence during the year 1972 to engage more people particularly the women into this vital sector. Gradually BRAC started vegetable seed production program and to provide support to the vegetable sector BRAC launched its variety development program in its own research and development center BARDC (BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre). Along with other advantages which favours seed trading, since vegetable seed business is a round the year trade and the high priced vegetable seed usually occupy relatively smaller area during storage it also facilitate seed industry development in the country and BRAC also gave importance to the vegetable sector to involve itself in the seed business. As an NGO, undeniably it may be argued that it is quite ridiculous that BRAC has established a research section for the improvement of horticultural crops but it is interesting to note that through this research activities BRAC has played a very vital role not only in producing best quality vegetable seed within the country but also played a significant role in promoting and popularizing vegetable cultivation in Bangladesh. Besides absorbing a good no. of agriculturalists, botanists and other skilled persons in its agriculture sector every year BRAC is also helping to control the unemployment problem of Bangladesh as well. # To enjoy my you tube video on red spinach please follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijF78rwhaY&t=57s

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BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre (BARDC) & Its Vegetable Sector
Sitesh C. Biswas*
BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre, BRRI, Joydebpur, Gazipur, Bangladesh
*Corresponding author: sitesh.cb2@gmail.com
Bangladesh is situated in the South East Asian region and is one of the developing
countries in the world having the highest population density, of which 40 per cent is under the
poverty level, 70 per cent is malnourished; particularly the women & children and a vast
population are unemployed. Frequent visit to natural calamities like seasonal flood, cyclone, tidal
wave etc. and also climate change effect aggravates this situation year after year. It is a fact that
near about 30,000 people get blind in childhood every year due to a deficiency in Vitamin A. An
earlier survey indicated that 93 per cent family in Bangladesh suffer from vitamin C deficiency,
85 per cent from riboflavin, 81 per cent from vitamin A and calcium, 60 per cent in protein and
59 per cent in caloric requirement. On the other hand, Bangladesh is also a country bestowed
with a vast plane of fertile land with a good riverine network, enough sunshine throughout the
year, six distinctly different seasons, huge plant genetic resources and hard-working groups of
people which makes it suitable land for vegetable cultivation. Vegetable cultivation is a century-
old profession of Bangladeshi people and it is being carried out from generation to generation
provides support not only the food and nutritional security to the Bangladeshi people, but it also
generates income for small and marginal farmers, provides a source of earning foreign currency
through exports, ensures commercial agriculture as well as horticulture therapy and plays a vital
role in the rapid progress of the socioeconomic status of the country. Unlike rice cultivation,
vegetable cultivation requires relatively less quantity of water and comparatively less crop
duration and the productivity of this group of the crop is also very high. Interestingly near about
240 to 250 Kg of vegetables can be harvested from only one decimal of land in case of some
vegetable crops. Again off-season and extra early or early type vegetable cultivation is a boon for
vegetable growers as by growing vegetables in the off-season or in the early part of the season
farmers get huge profits by selling their products. Additionally, availability of the off-season
vegetables in the market also ensures diversified food for the local consumers as well which
ultimately improves the nutritional status of the common people of Bangladesh. However,
practically the picture of vegetable consumption in Bangladesh is very bleak. The total
availability of vegetables is around 50g per head per day against the requirement of 280 gm.
There are about 18-20 million families in Bangladesh, and most of them live in rural areas
having a homestead for each. These homesteads are the most effective and common production
units for supplying food, fuel, timber and other family needs and employing family labours.
When produced in homesteads, the consumption is naturally increased and more family nutrition
is obtained through the supply of fresh vegetables around the year (Schreinemachers et al. 2015).
A report earlier stated that only 13 per cent homestead area was under vegetable cultivation. The
fresh vegetables produced from the farmer’s homestead can meet up the demand for the nutrition
of a small landless or marginal family around the year. The female members of the family who
are intrinsically plant lovers can nurse the homestead crops which may create a chance for their
employment. Hence, an initiative is urgently required to produce nutrient-dense vegetables in the
homesteads around the year and for commercial vegetable growers as well.

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Realizing the importance of horticulture in the socio-economic as well as cultural
development of Bangladesh BRAC a Non-Governmental Organization of Bangladesh started its
agriculture programme in the year 1972 and laid the foundation of the Vegetable Sector with the
distribution of vegetable seeds to the Village Organization members to provide adequate
nutrition to its V.O. members, to generate additional income to the members particularly to the
women-the underprivileged, most deprived and weaker section of the society, to utilize the land
resources more judiciously and to disseminate the modern techniques of vegetable cultivations to
the growers. With the gradual transformation of subsistence agriculture to commercial
agriculture in Bangladesh BRAC wanted to contribute more to the vegetable sector and started
seed production programme during the year 1996 using the platform BRAC Agricultural
Programme. To upgrade its Vegetable Sector BRAC also started Vegetable Research Programme
during the year 2000 at BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre in Gazipur to
address the issues related to the development of demand-led new varieties, commercial vegetable
production and vegetable seed production more systematically and more comprehensively
(Fig. 1).
The vegetable sector is at present operating its research-oriented activities as well as seed
production on some common vegetable crops. These are:
1. Fruiting vegetables (okra, pumpkin, cucumber, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, bottle gourd,
snake gourd, ash gourd, sponge gourd, eggplant, tomato, hot pepper etc.)
2. Leafy & salad vegetables {Indian spinach, spinach, pechay (pak-choi), red amaranth,
kang kong, broad leaf mustard, jute mallow etc.}
3. Podded vegetables (yard-long bean, country bean, mung bean, garden pea, cowpea etc.)
4. Stem and bulb vegetables (onion, stem amaranth etc.)
5. Western Brassicas (cauliflower, cabbage, kohl rabi)
6. Root & tuber vegetables (radish, carrot) &
7. Indigenous vegetables {Drum stick, Jute mallow (Corchorus olitorious), Lafa shak
(Malva verticillata), Bothua shak (Chenopodium sp.), Brahmi shak (Bacopa monierii),
Gandha vadali (Pterida foetida) etc.

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Fig. 1. BRAC Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory in BRAC Agricultural Research
& Development Centre at Gazipur.
Unlike other sectors of BRAC Agricultural Programme (rice, maize, potato, tissue culture,
horticulture & nursery, soil testing facilities) Vegetable Sector has 5 types of activities viz.,
A. Variety screening B. Variety development C. Generation of new technologies D.
Development of uncommon type of varieties E. Seed production.
Activities
A. Variety screening programme: Under this programme usually the best variety/varieties
of different vegetable crops from the imported seeds are screened out. As seeds of the
cool season vegetable crops such as, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, turnip, kohlrabi,
carrot etc. are generally not produced here in Bangladesh and this is why for the seeds of
these crops, Bangladeshi farmers are totally dependent upon the imported seeds of the
cool season crops of the foreign companies particularly reputed companies of Japan,
China, Taiwan, Thailand, USA, Viet Nam, India etc. For operating variety screening
activities and screening out the better varieties; high-quality seeds of these crops are
collected from the companies of the abovementioned countries and their grow-out trials
are conducted. Based on the observation trial best varieties are selected and
recommended to the marketing section for importing the seeds of those particular
variety/varieties (Table. 1). Top-quality seeds obtained from reputed companies are
finally sold to the growers through the BRAC Seed marketing network system.

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Table. 1: List of vegetable varieties selected by BRAC scientists through variety
screening and are being marketed by BRAC Seed Marketing division.
Sl.
no
Name of the crop No. of variety/
varieties
Variety name
01
Cauliflower (F1 hybrid)
02 Advanta 1213, KS-60
02
Cabbage (F1 hybrid)
01 Advanta 1055
03 Sunflower (F1 hybrid) 01 Hysun 33
04 Pumpkin (F1 hybrid) 02 Thailand 1, Thailand 2
05 Okra (F1 hybrid) 01 Joy
06 Cucumber (F1 hybrid) 01 Phung Tong
07 Ridge gourd (F1 hybrid) 01 Green Plus
08 Radish (F1 hybrid) 01 White Star
09 Hot pepper (F1 hybrid) 01 Fire volcano
10 Kohlrabi (F1 hybrid) 01 Hero
11 Coriander (OP) 01 Green aroma
12 Carrot (OP) 01 Sine Kuroda
B. Variety development programme
In fact, this is the core programme of the Vegetable Section. Under this programme
Vegetable Sector is developing new improved varieties (both OP & F1 hybrids) &
diverse genotypes to be used for the development of new varieties (Table. 2). Basically,
the Vegetable Sector is engaged here in the development of hybrids of those vegetable
crops which are widely grown in Bangladesh and seed production is economically
feasible under Bangladeshi agro-climatic conditions such as bitter gourd, bottle gourd,
pumpkin, ridge gourd, snake gourd, sponge gourd, ash gourd, okra, cucumber, eggplant,
tomato, hot pepper etc. BRAC Vegetable Sector has started to develop F1 hybrids of the
important crops and so far as many as 10 hybrids of different vegetable crops and 4 OP
varieties have been developed since the inception of the programme (Table. 1). As the
vegetable hybrids have several advantages over OP varieties such as 1. Higher yield, 2.
Higher uniformity rate, 3. Higher quality, 4. Higher disease resistance potentiality 5.
High degree of adaptability & 6. Higher profitability and this is why these hybrids are
very popular among growers.

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Table. 2: List of own hybrid and OP varieties developed by BRAC scientists.
Sl.
no
Name of the crop No. of
variety/
varieties
Variety name
01
Bitter gourd (F1 hybrid)
02 Bulbuli & Cosmos
02
Ridge gourd (F1 hybrid)
01 Green Star
03 Bottle gourd (F1 hybrid) 02 Green Super & Asha
04 Pumpkin (F1 hybrid) 01 Beauty
05 Okra (F1 hybrid) 01 Ever Green
06 Tomato (F1 hybrid) 02 Tripti-01 & Tripti-02
07 Eggplant (F1 hybrid) 03 Surovi, Giant Green & Super Singnath
08 Radish (OP) 01 Sufola 40
09 Spinach (OP) 01 Sufola Palong 01
10 Onion (OP) 01 Taherpuri
11 Ash gourd (OP) 01 Sufola Ash gourd 01
12 Yardlong bean 01 Lal Lota
C. Generation of new technologies: Along with the development of new varieties,
Vegetable Sector is also generating different types of new technologies, and standard
cultivation techniques of the newly developed hybrids under this vegetable section. The
technologies like ‘cut-and-come-again’ techniques of harvesting spinach, pechay, leaf
mustard, and coriander; growing vegetables under polythene tunnel during the rainy
season; cloning of F1 hybrid kang kong, teasel gourd, Brahmi shak, Gandha vadali etc.
in its research section. Standardized cultivation techniques of the hybrids so developed
are then transferred to the BRAC vegetable seed farms and contract growers respectively
for obtaining the desired productivity and top quality seeds as well.
D. Development of uncommon type of varieties: Along with the development of F1
hybrid and OP varieties Vegetable sector is also developing some uncommon type of
varieties of different vegetable crops such as red okra, red spinach, white pumpkin, pink
coloured yard long bean, purple coloured hot pepper, red chenopodium, yellow seeded
mung bean, heat tolerant country bean, summer tomato, large-seeded confectionary type
ground nut etc. red okra, red spinach, pink coloured yard long bean, purple hot pepper
and red bothua (chenopodium) are anthocyanin-rich vegetable which has got immense
health benefits (Figs. 2 & 3). Preliminary tests also confirmed that red okra has β-
carotene & anthocyanin and red spinach has an increased level of β-carotene besides a

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higher level of iron. On the other hand, yellow-seeded mung bean has a 33% reduced
level of fat. Heat-tolerant country bean is a boon to vegetable growers as they can be
grown in the monsoon season when there are very few vegetables in the market besides
its production in the normal winter season. And these beans are usually sold at an
exorbitant price during that period which ensures the grower huge profits during the off
season period. Again large seeded confectionary type ground nut has increased level of
fibre compared to the existing commercial varieties. Its taste is also better than other
ground nut varieties.
Fig. 2. Red okra developed at BARDC. Fig. 3. Red spinach & green spinach developed
at BARDC.
E. Seed Production: The vegetable sector has a very good seed production network
system involving two regional research stations- one at Meherpur and the other in the
Dinajpur district besides its own good no. of contract growers under the Seed Production
System. Utilizing top-quality breeder’s seed, foundation seeds are produced in the
regional farms and certified seeds are finally produced by the contract growers from the
supplied high-quality foundation seed. Usually, the more sensitive type of F1 hybrid
seeds is produced at the farm level through their own management system while other
seeds particularly OP seeds are produced through the contract growers’ system
maintaining standard seed production rules & techniques.
Conclusion
Vegetables ensure nutrition for the majority of the common people of Bangladesh
besides strengthening food security as the Bengalese have a very rich culture of
vegetable consumption. It is well-known fact that vegetables are a source of vitamins
and minerals which is very much needed for the improvement of the status of the
nutrition of our people and to ensure nutritional security as well. Adequate nutrition is
required for the manifestation of characters based on the individual genetic make-up of
every individual and to obtain the total productivity of each and every person as well.
Again vegetables are the protective food which can prevent many diseases & ailments. It
is a well-known fact that vegetables are an important source of energy, fibre, protein,
vitamins and minerals which are very much needed for the improvement of the status of
the nutrition of the people of Bangladesh. Moreover, by growing more vegetables
unnecessary extra pressure on rice consumption can be reduced and food security can be
ensured partially while regular vegetable consumption ensures nutritional security,
particularly for poor people or small income groups. Intensive vegetable cultivation can
generate employment opportunities for marginal farmers and rural poor women folk and

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in this way, they can earn extra money by growing vegetables. Bangladesh is now
entering the commercialization of agriculture and vegetable cultivation can ensure the
sustainability of commercial agriculture in Bangladesh through a steady supply of
vegetables to the processing industries. Keeping this in view BRAC established a
Vegetable Cooling Centre at Tongi for processing fresh vegetables before exporting
them to foreign countries. In Bangladesh, the current national demand for vegetable
seeds is around 3000 metric tons per year and only a fraction of it (nearly 38% of the
total requirement) is fulfilled by the Govt. organization and the Organized Sectors while
the major portion of the seeds for regular vegetable cultivation are ‘Farmers retained
seed’ which are happened to be usually inferior quality seed and poor yielding as well.
But only good quality seeds can increase production up to 20% and BRAC Vegetable
Sector is trying to supply good quality seeds to the vegetable growers at a reasonable
price rate. Since the seeds are being produced in the country now it is becoming possible
to produce these seeds at a reduced cost and BRAC vegetable seeds are therefore
cheaper compared to imported hybrid seeds.
References
Schreinemachers, P., M. A. Patalagsa, M. R. Islam, M. N. Uddin, S. Ahmed, S. C.
Biswas, M. T. Ahmad, R. Y. Yang, P. Hanson, S. Begum and C. Takagi. 2015.
The effect of women’s home gardens on vegetable production and consumption in
Bangladesh. Food Sec. 7: 97-107.
Address:
Dr. Sitesh Chandra Biswas
Program Specialist (Retired)
BRAC Agricultural Research & Development Centre (BARDC)
Jogitola, BRRI, Joydebpur, Gazipur
BANGLADESH
Mobile Phone: +8801715458907
E-mail: sitesh.cb2@brac.net
or, siteshchbiswas@yahoo.com
Sitesh C. Biswas http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2179-8608
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