Profit from the non-traditional crop was much beyond the expectation of the two poor farmers. They have already sold over five maunds each, which earned them more than Tk 12,000 from only three decimal plots.

Unbelievable though, the plants will bear fruit till the end of February, Netrakona Sadar upazila Assistant Agriculture Officer Rahima Khatun told them.

The BARI tomaotes grown on their fields are more tasty than the ones imported from a neighbouring country. So their price is higher, the farmers told this correspondent during a recent visit to the fields at Barshikura village in Netrakona Sadar upazila.

"Rahima Khatun advised us to go to BARI at Joydebpur for a day's training and cultivate summer variety tomato. We did so with a lukewarm attitude", Manzurul said.

"After a day's raining, we were given Tk 6,000 each to raise sheds and BARI-3 and BARI-4 varieties of tomato seeds", he said. The plants need to be protected from rain with a polythene shed.

"We grew the crop under supervision of Rahima Khatun", he said.

Manzurul and Aminul were plucking tomoato and nursing plants in their lands adjoining their homesteads.

Other than the cost of sheds, the expenditure and nursing is similar to seasonal tomato plants, they said.

They used six maunds of cow dung, six kilograms of urea, five kilograms of TSP and about three kilograms of potash fetiliser in each of the plots. One-month-old seedlings were transplanted in fields in the first week of June. When flowering began in late July, they used a hormone named Tomaton, given by BARI.

Harvest started in the second week of August, they said.

Rahima Khatun told this correspondent that BARI-3 and BARI-4 are 'indeterminate varieties', which will bear fruit till February if plants are nursed and fertiliser given in appropriate proportion. Each plant will yield at least three kiligrams of tomato, she said.