A significant number of people in Rajshahi, including youths have made their fortunes by farming strawberries commercially as it has proven to be more beneficial for them.
Tazimul Haque, 53, a farmer of Baroipara village under Paba upazila, said each plant bears around 250 to 300 grams of fruit and some 6,000 plants can be grown on one bigha of land.
Hamidul Haque, another farmer of Puthiya, who has been cultivating the cash crop for more than 10 years, said there is a bright prospect of strawberry farming everywhere in the region.
The red juicy and nutritious fruit are now being supplied to markets in the capital, he said, adding strawberry cultivation is too easy than potatoes or eggplant.
Saplings can be planted in rows between November and December every year, he said.
Illustrating the salient feature of strawberry, a high-value cash crop, he said the plants start flowering within one month of plantation and fruits can be collected till March.
Bakkar Ali, another farmer of Parila village, said a large number of people, mostly unemployed youths, have become dependent on strawberry farming to earn a living as its cultivation is easier and more profitable than other crops.
The youths are supplying strawberries to different markets across the country as the fruit is being used in preparing ice cream, jams, jellies, pickles, chocolates and biscuits.
Professor Dr Manzur Hossain, who is a pioneer in the country's strawberry research, variety innovation and growers' level farming expansion, said Bangladeshi strawberry variety has been adjudged as the world's best strawberry.
Farming of the juicy fruit has already begun in many districts in the region, he said.
With the average price of a kilogram of Strawberry standing at Taka 700, the commercially viable fruit presents great export potentials and ushers in economic prospects for those who wish to get high and fast returns from limited land resources, he added.
Prof Hossain, a faculty of the Department of Botany at Rajshahi University, said they have innovated three varieties of strawberries through applying the tissue culture method.
All the varieties are being cultivated massively as those were found adaptive to the region's soil and environmental conditions, he added.
Strawberry, a succulent fruit popular in different parts of the globe, is also gradually becoming popular among the local people.
Hossain mentioned that if farmers get more opportunities and the scale of cultivation can be expanded, strawberry farming can bring a new horizon in the agricultural sector of Bangladesh.
Looking into its economic prospects, the farmers should be motivated so that they get the proper opportunity to farm the cash crop commercially, he continued.
