June 17
ywangan township, Danu self-administered zone, Shan State (South) is reliant on agricultural business. The local people from that township are growing fresh vegetables such as tomato, chilli, cabbage, mustard and potato.
This year, the local people are mainly growing tomato and expecting it to fetch a higher price.
The tomatoes are grown mainly in the early monsoon and monsoon. To be able to grow the tomato in early monsoon, the local growers are preparing the land starting from February. The soil bag is also prepared to plant the tomato seeds in March. They are also planning to sow the tomato seeds, predicting the rain will fall in the water festival period.
In early monsoon, the tomato prices are likely to be higher, and the local people mainly grow a tomato in those seasons.
Although the incidence of bacterial infections is low on tomato plants, the cost of production is much higher than that in the rainy season. The tomato seeds are started to plant in June.
The cultivation cost is much higher in this year compared to that of last year including pesticide, fertilizer and labour charges. Cultivation of each plant of tomato costs K 700. Each plant can yield about two visses. This is the reason why the local tomato growers are expecting to get better prices this year, according to the local growers. —Township IPRD/GNLM
