Home ›› 29 Apr 2023 ›› Nation
With pineapple harvest season still over a month away, agriculturists predict a bumper yield of the fruit this upcoming sea-son.
However, the early-yielding Joldubi variety has already hit the markets and farmers are happy with the prices of their har-vest. While this variety is usually cultivated in the hill tracts of Bandarban, for the past few years farmers of Tangail’s Madhupur upazila have been cultivating Joldubi pineapples.
According to farmers, the Joldubi pineapples are smaller in size compared to other varieties and are also sweeter to taste. This variety also yields about a month and a half sooner than other pineapples.
Previously, the most commonly grown variety in the upazila was Giant Q. These pineapples, obliging to its name are large in size.
However, currently, one of the most commonly grown varieties in the upazila is Calender pineapples. The main season of this variety is June, July and August. But they are grown more or less throughout the year nowadays.
Alongside the commonly cultivated Giant Q, Calendar, and Joldubi pineapples, a relatively new and foreign variety called MD-2 has also been cultivated this season. The variety was invented by an American couple.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Tangail, last year 5,89,500 MD-2 pineapple seedlings brought from the Philippines were distributed among 107 farmers in Madhupur.
Seedlings of this variety are of international standard. It has a long shelf life. Even after harvest, pineapples of this variety can be stored for about one month. However, the farmers said that they did not have much success in cultivating this varie-ty.
Due to the extensive cultivation of different types of the fruit, Tangail’s Madhupur upazila has gained fame as the pineapple capital. However, pineapple cultivation is also popular in the neighbouring Ghatail and Shakhipur upazilas.
The soil and weather of Madhupur Garh are suitable for pineapple cultivation. Due to the organic cultivation method be-coming popular, the fruits are also safe for consumption. Pineapples grown here have become popular due to their deli-cious taste and aroma.
However, allegedly some unscrupulous farmers and traders use harmful chemicals on pineapples to make them attractive in hopes of higher profits. Using chemicals also makes the fruits ripen sooner so farmers can comfortably harvest them all together and market them.
On the other hand, if no additional chemicals are used, the pineapple will look green on the outside even though it is ripe inside. Due to this, demand for organic pineapples decreases as customers tend to pick outwardly ripe-looking pineapples.
Sanwar Hossain, a farmer of Mahishmara village of Madhupur cultivated pineapples on 400 decimals of land this season. He said that plants have already started to fruit and within two more months he will be able to harvest them all. He expects to harvest 40,000 pineapples this season.
“It rained on time this year, and the weather so far has been good. I expect a bumper yield. However, some farmers tried to harvest early and market them before Eid by using chemicals,” Sanwar said, adding that the corrupt farmers are destroy-ing the market.
Farmer Abdus Samad Miah of Sanbandha village in Ghatail’s Lakkhindar union said that the prices of pineapples have been good for the past few years. He planted 9,000 saplings this year expecting a bumper yield.
According to district DAE sources, last year pineapple had been cultivated on 7,700 hectares of land in Tangail. This time, the target of cultivation has been set at 8000 hectares, but agriculturists predict the target may exceed it.
So far pineapple has been cultivated on 7,500 hectares of land this year. The production target is 2,72,000 tonnes.
Tangail DAE Deputy Director Ahsanul Bashar said the hilly areas of Madhupur Garh are very suitable for pineapple cultiva-tion.
“The weather is favourable so far and we expect a bumper yield. Many farmers use hormone-boosting medicine to ripen and grow pineapples faster. The use of this medicine is allowed within certain limitations,” he said.
He further added that the excessive use of any chemicals can be harmful to the human body. The agricultural department is trying to prevent the unbridled use of hormone-boosting medicine in pineapples.
