Clicky
National

Growers worried over marketing

Mango plucking begins in Rajshahi today


Published : 14 May 2020 10:13 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 07:32 PM

In accordance with the directives from Rajshahi district administration, mango orchard owners and mango cultivators of the district are going to pluck local varieties of 'Guti' mango from this morning (Friday morning on May 15). 

They would also be able to sale those mangoes elsewhere in the country from the same day. But, due to Coronavirus crisis, mango farmers and growers are deeply worried about the mango.  

Absence of transport facilities and non-response from wholesale mango traders from Dhaka and other places of the country about purchasing of mango is forcing mango growers and farmers to delay the plucking of mango as far as possible. 

Mango farmer Abul Kalam of Alimganj area under Paba upazila informed, he has only a couples of Guti mango trees in his orchard and mangoes from those trees would be plucked from Friday but he was worried what he would do by plucking those. There is no marketing facility at present but he still needs to pluck those but he would delay plucking the quality mangoes as far as possible. 

Saidur Rahman, a mango orchard owner in Rajabari area informed, there was satisfactory mango production in Rajshahi district. 

Due to the transport problem and the problem of Coronavirus, there would be a huge problem of marketing of mangoes. Moreover, mangoes are mainly sent to Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and other places of the country but most of the people used to live there have returned to their village houses making those cities almost empty of people. As a result, they were worried there would be problem in the marketing of mango and getting fair price of the fruit, 

Shamsul Haquem Deputy Director of Rajshahi district Agriculture Extension Department informed, the farm products are out of lockdown that is why there will be no problem of marketing of mangoes and there would be no problem in selling those. Now, people are coming out of their houses and visiting markets and hats. But there might be a bit of problem in selling due to the Ramadan.

It is learnt, mango orchards have been created on 17,686 hectares of land in Rajshahi district with a target of production of 210,000 metric tonnes of mangoes in the district this year.

The mango farmers will be able to pluck quality Gopal Bhog variety of mango from May-20, Rani Pasand, Lakhman Bhog and Lakhna mango from May 25, Himsagar or Khirsapat from May 28, Langra mango from June-6, Amrapali from June-15, Fazley mango from June-25 and Ashina and BARI-4 varieties of mango from July-10.