Concerted efforts of all the government, non-government and other stakeholders can be the vital means of safe production, harvesting, ripening, transporting and marketing of mangoes.
Mango farming can be made safely and easily by practising some basic means such as washing hands while farming, not using chemicals, temperature control, using fruit baskets for collection and using clean water for irrigation.
Administrative officials and experts observed while addressing a mass-awareness workshop styled "Mango Production, Harvesting, Ripening, Transporting and Marketing in Safe Way" on Thursday.
The speakers of the workshop said that this is the high time of bringing all the mango farmers under requisite training for making the mango harvesting and marketing process safe and hygienic.
Bangladesh Safe Food Authority (BSFA) hosted the workshop at the conference hall of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rajshahi largely attended by officials of line departments, development activists, business leaders, mango farmers and other stakeholders.
Capacity building project of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority project supported the workshop.
BSFA Chairman Kaiyum Sarker addressed the workshop as chief guest while Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Food Khurshid Alam Rizvi, BSFA Member (Public Health and Nutrition) Monzur Murshed Ahmed spoke as special guests with DC Abdul Jalil in the chair.
Dr Alim Uddin, principal scientific officer of the Regional Fruit Research Station, gave an illustration of the issue during his keynote presentation.
He told the meeting that modern technologies are being promoted commercially in mango orchards here during the pre-harvest season to protect mangoes from pest attacks, enabling the farmers to get better yield.
Kaiyum Sarker mentioned that modern technologies need to be promoted commercially in mango orchards in the region during the harvesting season for facilitating the farmers to get quality and better yield and price.
Mango is a leading seasonal cash crop of the country's northwest region and dominates the economy in the two districts famous for the delicious fruit.
Terming the seasonal fruit as an important cash crop, he viewed that more than 60 per cent of people in the region are directly or indirectly dependent on mango.
He said there are about 30 lakh mango trees of different varieties on some 32,816 hectares of land in the region. "We need to be careful when harvesting, which is an important part of demonstrating good practices," he added.
If modern technologies were promoted substantially and the use of chemical insecticides and pesticides could be reduced to a greater extent, the modern method will open up a new door of exporting mangoes of the region to various foreign markets.
