Home ›› 18 May 2022 ›› Nation
With harvest season starting in less than a week, farmers in Dinajpur are expecting a bumper production of lychee, which has a wide range of appeal across the country.
The district’s lychee orchards are currently filled with almost-ripe and half-ripe fruits, so owners are hard at work tending to their crops.
Among the 13 upazilas, Sadar, Birol, Chirirbandar, Kaharol, Birganj, and Khansama have the highest lychee production rate.
Bedana, Bombay, Madraji, China-3, and local varieties are among the most cultivated lychee in the region.
Khalesur Rahman, assistant director of the district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), lychee has been cultivated on 5,787 hectares of land this season.
According to the official, who is also in charge of lychee research, the department is advising lychee growers and offering additional help in order to meet the output target this season.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the farmers and orchard owners faced losses over the past two years.
They intend to make up for the losses this year because the yield is expected to be high. They are busy tending to the plants to ensure quality production.
The lychee from Dinajpur is well-known for its mouthwatering sweet and juicy flavour.
Mosaddek Hossain, a lychee farmer and researcher in Sadar upazila, said the yield of lychee is expected to be much better compared to the last two years.
According to the farmer, lychee cultivation requires adequate irrigation during the Chaitra season. But due to the heatwaves, the farmers could not irrigate the orchards properly.
However, even with the hostile weather, most plants were full of almost-ripe and half-ripe fruits as harvest draws near, he added.
Farmers are currently busy weeding their plants and spraying pesticides to control insects and diseases.
According to a resident of Pulhat-Masimpur in Dinajpur Sadar upazila, lychee cultivation has grown immensely in the past two decades.
A lychee farmer, Shafiqul Islam of Birol said a big lychee tree can produce up to 25,000 lychees, and a small tree produces 1,000-1,500 lychees. Lychee harvest begins in the middle of the Bangali month Baishakh.
According to DAE sources, there are about 3,500 lychee orchards on more than 5,500 hectares of land in the Dinajpur district. There are more than 335,000 trees in these gardens.
The production target this season is 35,000 tonnes. In total, the DAE expects an estimated yield of approximately 1 billion lychees.
Contacted, DAE Additional Director Prodip Kumar Guha said they are assisting the farmers by providing regular advice.
The two most prominent lychee markets will be arranged in Kalitala New Market and Gore-E-Shaheed Bara Maidan of Dinajpur.
The DAE is making efforts to coordinate with everyone involved in this sector, starting from lychee production, transportation, and marketing to ensure that the farmers do not face any losses.
Wholesalers buy trucks loaded with lychee from Dinajpur and transport them to different parts of the country.
Last year, the lychee orchards of Dinajpur had good yields of Madraji, China, Bedana, Bombay, Kathali, Haria, and local varieties of lychee, according to DAE sources.
Due to its sweetness, China Three and Bedana lychee are usually most in demand.
Depending on the variety, per 100 lychee of China-3 sells for Tk 550-750, Bedana for Tk 500-600, Bombay for Tk 250-300, Madraji for Tk 140-180.
