Mango trees continue to sprouting, eyeing bumper output

Farmers and officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) are expecting bumper mango output following a smooth formation of the tender fruits in the Rangpur region this season.

DAE officials said with the advent of the summer season, tens of thousands of mango trees began flowering in the region, famous for the production of the seasonal, delicious mango fruit across the country and abroad.

Principal Scientific Officer of Fruit Research Station (FRS) Dr Alim Uddin said the prevailing climate condition is suitable to blossom in mango trees.

He said hundreds of thousands of mango trees have already bloomed and worn eye-catching looks with huge flowers. He added that flowering in mango trees began in mid-January that would continue till mid-March.

Every year new mango orchards, predominantly comprising of Amrapali, BARI Mango-3 and 4 varieties, are rapidly increasing in the districts, said, agriculturists.

Naogaon was long known for paddy cultivation, but it became the highest mango-producing district for the last couple of years, surpassing the mango capital of Chapainawabganj.

Dr Alim said Chapainawabganj still has the highest amount of land covered by mango orchards, but Naogaon saw a one-and-a-half-times increase in its mango farm acreage annually over the last ten years, according to DAE data.

The area covered by mango orchards in Naogaon increased by 14,925 hectares in the period, while the increase was 9,520 hectares in Chapainawabganj.

Mango farming is not only increasing, but it is changing as well. Instead of creating mango orchards for a hundred years or more like past, farmers are targeting only ten years to grow their orchards.

Normally ten mango trees are planted in one bigha of land, but in the new farming method, farmers can plant up to 200 trees in the same space, said Md Nuruzzaman, a mango grower of Porsha upazila of Naogaon.

“These trees will bear fruit for ten years or less, and then we have to uproot them and replant new mango saplings.”

The growth of mango orchards is the highest in two Naogaon upazilas - Porsha and Sapahar. They have 72 per cent of the orchards of the district, says DAE.

Meanwhile, around 60 to 65 per cent of mango trees have already sprouted in Chapainawabganj, while 65 to 70 per cent in Rajshahi as the remaining mango trees are expected to sprout by mid-March in some cases, he continued.

On behalf of the FRS, many of the grassroots mango farmers have imparted training to yield a maximum output side by side with safe production after the best uses of modern technologies, Dr Alim added.

Additional Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Khayer Uddin Mollah said the farmers have been caring and taking measures for making mango farming successful everywhere.

The farmers have been keeping in contact with the agriculture officers at the field levels to control the possible attacks by hoppers and some other pest attacks on the mango flowers.

There are around 35 lakh mango trees of different ages on some 23 thousand hectares of land in the region, said the DAE officials concerned.

The number of growing mango trees has increased in the region for the last couple of decades.

Mango, the leading seasonal cash crop of the northwestern region, vitalizes the overall economy of the Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts.

After witnessing the present climate condition, both the growers and the officials are very much optimistic about the high yield of the seasonal fruit.

Abul Hossain, a farmer of Mazar Diar village in Paba upazila, said buds started appearing in mango trees this season before the end of winter.