Ahsan Habib Rasel, a farmer of Nasratpur Union in Chirirbandar Upazila of Dinajpur, has succeeded in cultivating Malta commercially. Thousands of Malta now hang from trees on about 33 percent of its land.
Seeing his success, many people in the area are interested in cultivating Malta. Seeing him in Nasratpur village, 10 more farmers have started cultivating Malta. And at least half a hundred farmers have started cultivating Malta in Chirirbandar.
In 2018, the officials of the Upazila Agriculture Office provided free seedlings of Bari Jat-1 Malta tree from the Agriculture Office under the project to motivate the farmers in Malta cultivation. Rasel first planted 56 Malta saplings on 25 percent of the land.
After about a year and a half of care, the tree began to bear fruit. Each tree has 50-100 fruits. Understanding the amount of yield and profit of the first year and on the advice of Deputy Assistant Agricultural Officer Khademul Islam, I planted 14 more taras by increasing the land by 8 percent.
At present, Malta has a total of 70 trees on 33 percent of my land. And in a few days it will be possible to market all this in Malta. I am hoping that it will sell for 50 to 60 thousand taka. At present, Rasel's mother and wife regularly assist in tending Maltese gardens on 33 percent of the land.
Following Rasel, Firoz Ahmed (45) from the same village cultivated Malta. He said he has cultivated Malta on 25 per cent of the land and 50-60 of his 56 trees have borne fruit. Similarly, Kajal Rahman of neighbouring Nasratpur village is cultivating Malta.
Upazila Agriculture Officer Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan said Rasel is a hardworking farmer. His malta cultivation has yielded quite good results. Seeing his garden, other farmers in the area are interested in cultivating Malta. All kinds of assistance is being given to the interested persons by the Upazila Agriculture Department.
