Growing Ball Sundari kul (jujube) has turned around the fortunes of Diptimoy Tanchangya in Bandarban. He expects to sell Tk 22 lakh worth of kul this year. Last year, although a cyclone damaged the orchard, he sold Tk 6 lakh worth. With favourable weather this year, the yield is four times last year's.

After passing his SSC in 2011, he ended his studies and worked for a private organisation while helping his family with jhum cultivation. After discussing it with his brothers, in early 2023 he planted 900 grafted Ball Sundari saplings on his father's 5 acres of hill land. The saplings were brought online from Paikgachha in Khulna.

Diptimoy Tanchangya said: "Last year I planted about 950 Ball Sundari and Kashmiri kul saplings on five acres. Being grafted, they fruited in the first year, and that year I sold Tk 6 lakh worth. The total cost was Tk 2.5 lakh. This year another 850 Ball Sundari saplings were planted, and they too have fruited four times more than last year. There are now about 1,800 kul trees on these 5 acres. Traders from various areas are already coming to see the orchard."

He said 950 grafted saplings were first bought online, costing Tk 45,500 at Tk 50 per sapling delivered to the orchard, and planting, fertiliser and care brought spending to about Tk 2.5 lakh. By his account, the orchard now has more than 2,000 Ball Sundari trees, 1,850 of which are fruiting. Last year ripe kul sold at Tk 200 a kg and dried kul at Tk 300 a kg; on that basis, about Tk 22 lakh worth can be sold from the orchard this year.

Kul trader Md Belal Hossain said the fruit is in strong demand because it is very tasty. He has previously bought wholesale from Diptimoy Tanchangya's orchard and supplied Chattogram, Cox's Bazar and other areas. Another trader, Ali Ahmad, said: "If the price is right after seeing the orchard, I will buy the whole crop."

Neighbour Mongkya Ching Marma, himself an orchard owner, said he had heard everyone in the area praise the orchard and came to see it, and was inspired. "By making fruit orchards on fallow hill land, young people are profiting and their families are becoming better off," he said.

Agriculturist MM Shah Neaz, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Bandarban, said: "In Bandarban, fruit orchards are being planted widely alongside jhum cultivation. Kul is being grown in large quantities this season, meeting local demand and being supplied elsewhere. Ball Sundari, apple kul, Kashmiri kul and narikel kul are widely grown in the district. This year kul has been grown on 1,500 hectares."

He urged farmers not to lease out their orchards, to look after them properly, and not to spray pesticide within a set period before sale.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.