President, PM urge people to plant more local fruit trees

President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today called upon all to plant more fruit trees across the country to meet the demand of food and nutrition and attain economic self- reliance.

They made the call in separate messages on the occasion of ‘Fruit Tree
Planting Fortnight’ from June 16 to 30 and ‘National Fruit Fair’ from June 16
to 18.

Terming this year’s theme of the ‘Fruit Tree Planting Fortnight’ and
‘National Fruit Fair’ as time-befitting, both the President and the Prime
Minister wished success of all programmes marking the occasions and hoped
that those would create awareness among the people.

In his message, President Abdul Hamid said fruit is the best source of
different types of vitamins and minerals and there is no alternative to
fruits to meet demand of nutrients in human body.

The soil and climate of our country are very suitable for the cultivation
of fruits, he said and added that huge production of local fruits has been
playing role to meet the demand of nutrition at the national level.

“I think that it is possible to generate huge employment opportunities
along with increasing production and maintaining environmental balance by
expanding farming of local varieties of fruits in a planned way across the
country,” said the President.

He said the ‘Fruit Tree Planting Fortnight’ and ‘National Fruit Fair’ will
help enrich the knowledge of new generation about different varieties of
traditional local fruits and encourage them to cultivate fruits in the
country.

In her message, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the present government’s
agriculture friendly policy and realistic steps have helped the country
attain sufficiency in food-grain production and massive success in vegetable
and fruit production.

Now ensuring security of nutrition is a challenge, she said, adding that
steps will have to be taken to ensure the supply of local fruits rich with
nutrients for the people. So, it is needed to increase the farming of local
fruits by using modern technology, she added.

The soil and climate of Bangladesh are suitable for fruit cultivation, she
said, adding that attention will have to be given to cultivate local fruits
like ‘dauya’, ‘chalta’, ‘karmocha’, blackberry, ‘lotkan’, ‘barai’ and ‘gab’.
At the same time, steps will have to be taken to increase farming foreign
varieties of fruits strawberry, dragon-fruit, avocado and sweet tamarind in
the country.

She urged all to plant fruit trees in and around the yard of homestead and
on roadsides in rural areas and on rooftops in urban areas to grow adequate
fruits all the year round.