Chapainawabganj mango growers eye bumper yield

FT ONLINE

 

The mango growers of Chapainawabganj district, known as the capital of mango, are expecting a high yield this season as mango trees are in full bloom due to favourable weather.

Eighty-four percent of the mango trees have already bloomed though the process of sprouting of buds was a bit late because of prolonged winter, according to officials at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

The mango cultivators and the businessmen are now passing busy days taking care of their trees.

Some 100 types of mango, the main cash crop of the district, including Gopalbhog, Khirsapat, Lengra, Fazli, Amrupali, Aswina, Khudi Khirsha, Bridaboni and Laxmanbhog are produced here.

According to the DAE, there are about 22,73,000 mango trees in 29,510 hectares of land of the district where the production was 2.44 lakh metric tonnes last year.

Nazrul Islam, a mango cultivator of Maheshpur area of Sadar upazila, said he was worried as the winter prolonged this year. “Even then, the flowering of the mango trees was satisfactory,” he added.

Abdul Ohid, a mango orchard owner of Noyagola area, said they are now spraying insecticides in their orchard to protect the buds from the attack of insects.

Manjurul Huda, a DAE deputy director, said 84 percent of the mango trees have bloomed by the first week of March.

Around 90 percent of the mango trees will be bloomed within the next several days.

He also said 6 millimeters rain was recorded on Saturday last and this helped protect buds from diseases and insects.

--RNA