**Abstract**

Vegetable production can help farmers to generate income, which will eventually alleviate poverty and malnutrition. Tomato is one of the most important vegetables in Bangladesh. But tomato production is extremely sensitive to hot and wet growing conditions. Thus, few varieties of off-season summer tomato have been developed and disseminated. Keeping these factors in consideration, this chapter was designed to delineate the impacts of summer tomato adoption on the income and food security status of the growers in a region of Bangladesh. Findings indicated that offseason tomato growers received significantly higher income. Consumption expenditure and food security status of the off-season tomato growers were significantly higher than non-growers. The chapter also includes policy implications for further development of the technology.

**Keywords:** Bangladesh, food consumption score, off-season, summer tomato, well-being

### **1. Introduction**

Bangladesh's agriculture contributed around 16% of the country's GDP and currently employs around 45% of the country's labor force [1]. Crop sector in Bangladesh is characterized by rice monoculture, which has led to a number of serious physical and biological problems, including nutritional impact [2]. However, recently, emphasis is also shifting from basic nutrients to balanced diets. Vegetables can play an important role by providing high nutritive value food and higher returns that eventually alleviate poverty. Due to favorable climatic and soil, a large number of vegetables are cultivated throughout the year in Bangladesh. In a view of increase in income, employment, and reduction of widespread malnutrition in Bangladesh, there is a strong need for vegetable cultivation.

Among the vegetables, tomato is one of the most important vegetables by acreage, production, yield, commercial use, and consumption. Tomato is cultivated all over the country due to its adaptability to wide range of soil and climate [3]. Its demand for both domestic and foreign markets has increased manifold due to its excellent nutritional and processing qualities [4]. In Bangladesh, congenial atmosphere remains for tomato production during low temperature winter season, that is, early November is the best time for tomato planting in Bangladesh [5]. Tomato

plants are highly sensitive to hot and humid seasons. However, limited attempt has been made to overcome this high temperature barrier.

Considering the growing demand and importance of tomato, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has developed and disseminated few varieties of off-season summer tomatoes. This summer season tomato cultivation requires complex agronomic management including high labor and applications of growth regulators in addition to extended skill and knowledge. Farmers typically plant off-season tomato varieties in the middle of May and continued cultivation up to February in the following year. To protect tomato plants from monsoon rain, farmers construct a bamboo pole frame and slats to which a polyethylene hoopshaped roof is attached [6]. The farm-level adoption of these varieties has already created a wide range of socioeconomic impacts that need to be evaluated properly to understand the output of research and development. So far, very little information is available on the impact of off-season tomato cultivation in Bangladesh.

Cultivating summer tomatoes in Bangladesh holds promise as a profitable enterprise with which farmers can augment the existing cropping patterns since only small amounts of land are required [6–8]. A study was conducted in southwestern Bangladesh to quantify the effect of training farmers on off-season vegetable cultivation. Findings indicate that training increased the net household income by about 48%. There was a significant increase in pesticide use and although there was an improvement in pesticide-handling practices, trained farmers may have been more exposed to pesticide health risk [9]. Majority of the off-season tomato growers possessed high knowledge on summer tomato cultivation. Education, land possession, annual family income, and extension contact of the farmers had a positive significant relationship with the farmers' knowledge on summer tomato cultivation [10]. Attack by pest and disease, lack of seed at proper time, lack of agricultural credit, and high cost of production were the major constraints for the adoption of summer tomato.

From the above discussion, it is clear that impacts of off-season tomato cultivation have not been addressed well in Bangladesh. Studies only measure the profitability using a very small number of samples. Thus, the questions like "What is the impact of off-season tomato cultivation on income and food security status?" are yet to be studied empirically in Bangladesh. This chapter is a moderate effort to examine the above research question and fulfill the gaps to some extent. It is expected that the findings will help the scientists and policy makers to further develop the technology.

#### **2. Production technology of off-season tomato**

Summer tomato cultivation in Bangladesh is mainly constrained by the seasonality and frequent attack of diseases. During the summer, fruit settings were disrupted due to high daytime temperatures above 26°C and at night temperatures above 20°C [11]. To overcome this problem, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has developed few hybrid varieties of heat tolerant tomato, known as off-season summer tomato [6]. High to medium land is required for summer tomato cultivation. Tomato may be grown on a wide range of soil from sandy to clay. The raised bed planting can be adopted in low land tropics and high rainfall areas. Transparent poly tunnel with a height of 120-180 cm was built on the raised beds to protect the tomato plants from rain. Approximately 75 cm wide drainage channel need must be constructed between tunnels to facilitate irrigation, drainage, and other intercultural operations [6].

*Impact of Off-Season Summer Tomato Cultivation on Income and Food Security of the Growers DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93674*
