Clicky
Country

Farmers of Babuganj show interest in orange farming


Published : 08 Dec 2022 07:30 PM

Parvej Mahmud of Babuganj Upazila in Barisal have successfully planted over thousands of Dragon fruit sapling in 63 per cent of the land.

This time, he has grown delicious Chinese oranges on a small scale in addition to the Dragon fruit.

He planted 405 China orange trees on his land in Idlikathi village on the banks of the Sandha River. Besides, he also produced 132 guava saplings as companion crops on the same ground. China's orange production has been satisfactory despite the lack of success in guava. He started growing Chinese oranges on YouTube with the aim of producing genuine products.

In 2020, he collected and planted China orange seedlings. This year, each of his trees bears a lot of fruit. Meanwhile, he is selling three tons of oranges at a price of 150 takas. It is the first time in this region that Chinese orange cultivation is done without any kind of chemicals or medicines and without applying organic fertilizers and pesticides, earning praise from the local Upazila Agriculture Office. 

People from different areas throng daily to see the orange orchard across the river. An orange tree can bear fruit for ten years. Additionally, he expects this garden to be fruitful for the next ten years. He dreamed of earning crores of rupees from this garden. Furthermore, there has been a stir in the area due to the fruiting of the garden with foreign fruits.

On the ground, Parvej Mahmud has achieved great success cultivating Chinese oranges with a strong flavour. Each tree bears clusters of unripe, ripe China oranges, with two labourers working daily. He is hopeful that the garden will sell 500-600 kg of oranges on average this year. He will earn 150-200 taka from this garden, netting about 1 lakh taka. He said that the yield would increase in the future.

Parvej Mahmud said that he graduated from the Government Bangla College of Dhaka in 2000 with a master's degree in accounting and worked as an accounting custodian in a company until 2008. Later moved to the United Arab Emirates. In 2019, he returned to his home country Bangladesh and in the year 2021, he decided not to go abroad but started the cultivation of dragon and China oranges. According to him, the youth society of the country shouldn't waste a large sum of cash going abroad and should create a workplace inside the country. 

Dehergoti Union Council Chairman Mashwir Rahman said Parvej Mahmud should be an example for other people in the area. According to Shah Arfiul Islam, Director of Production Expansion, Chinese oranges are not produced commercially in this region, and Parvej Mahmud is the first to make Chinese oranges commercially in Babuganj. We are keeping tabs on his garden and providing advice as per need from Agriculture Office.