Orange cultivation gains popularity in Panchagarh

Cultivation of orange on commercial basis has gained popularity among the farmers in the district as they are getting excellent production in recent years.

With the assistance of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), farmers of the district have started to cultivate the juicy-fruit after cultivating tea as its market demand is good, a DAE official said. Now, they are happy to see hopeful orange production in their small orchards, he added.

The DAE has fixed a target to bring more lands under the orange cultivation while orange is being cultivated around 15 hectares of land.

Sefali Begum of Bamonpara village under Sadar upazila, said: “I have cultivated orange on six bighas of land this year. Last year, I sold orange about Taka 0.1 million and this year I’m expecting to sell orange over Taka 0.2 million.”

Deputy Director of the DAE, Panchagarh Md Rias Uddin said land of the district are becoming suitable for orange cultivation and the farming has become popular in the district since its commercial cultivation began under the five-year term (2006-2011) of Orange Development Project (ODP) of the DAE.