Regional Correspondent
Mashiur Rahman Komol of Godagari upazila who cultivated late variety of mango is expecting to earn a satisfactory profit. Moreover, by stopping cultivation of paddy in the field, Komol has planted 1,100 mango trees of 17 local and exotic varieties on his eight bighas of land.
He said that by planting and raising mango trees instead of paddy, he would be able to retain the fertility of his land because it requires morefertilizer and insecticides to cultivate paddy which destroys fertility of the land.
Komol informed that mangoes from his trees will be plucked after the regular mango season as his late varieties of mangoes gets in plucking condition after the usual season.
Correspondent after visiting found that at the mango orchard of Komol, varieties of mangoes are beautifying the scenario. Sinduri mango which has a bright maroon colour tone is the prime attraction of this orchard. BARI-7 mango, another variety of mango which looks like banana and it is known as Banana mango is also stealing the attraction.
The orchard of Komol is now filled with full grown late variety of mangoes as Haribhanga, Chosa, NakFazli, Carabau, Red, Pahatun and Kerala. The orchard also contains the mango known as Brunei King and a special variety of Singapore. Komol informed the correspondent that a piece of Brunei King mango weighs 4 to 5 kilograms.
By noticing the excessive use of fertilizer and pesticides in the field of paddy and vegetables, Kamal decided to stop cultivation of the paddy or vegetables and started to plant saplings of mango of late varieties from 2014. He then started to raise the orchard in a planned way. He procured the saplings of 17 varieties of mango from a nursery in Naogaon.
He further mentioned that all other varieties of mangoes are ripened during the months of May and June or till the first week of July. But, the mangoes he planted are ripened and harvested from the first week of July to the first week of August. Being late in the market, he hoped to sell the mangoes at Taka 4,000 to Taka 8,000 per mound. It is to be mentioned that district agricultural department has encouraging farmers to plant mango variants that can produce fruits all around the year.