With strong demand, many Bangladeshi farmers are taking up new, high-value fruits and crops. Among them, cultivation of avocado, a fruit from Mexico and Central America, is growing. Experts say wide-ranging research is needed before commercial cultivation.

Harun-or-Rashid Musa of Kagmari village in Kotchandpur upazila, Jhenaidah, has been very successful with new fruit crops alongside his work as a schoolteacher. He has started the first commercial avocado cultivation in the country.

Avocado is highly nutritious and popular with health-conscious people in Europe and America, and there is good demand in Bangladesh too, so many are taking up avocado growing. The question is how far the effects of such crops on soil, water and the environment are being checked.

Thinking of the future, horticulture expert Mehedi Masud advises testing the crop's suitability through research before commercial avocado cultivation begins.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Hridoye Mati O Manush. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.