Mango, cashew and coffee orchards take over jhum land in Bandarban's hills

Bandarban hillsides once cleared for jhum cultivation now carry rows of mango, cashew, coffee, jujube, malta and dragon fruit trees. Jagonews24 reported on 27 June 2026 that better profits, market demand and government support were leading many hill farmers to swap jhum for commercial fruit.

Jhum is the slash-and-burn shifting cultivation practised by the indigenous communities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Forest is cut in January and burned in March or April; around May paddy, sweet pumpkin, cotton, sesame, maize and other seeds are sown together in the burnt soil. The fallow that lets the land recover has shrunk from the traditional ten years to two or three. Shifting cultivation with such short fallows has been linked to faster erosion, land degradation and deforestation in the Hill Tracts.

Farmers said jhum depends on the weather and often fails, while an established orchard pays year after year.

Bandarban, one of the three Chittagong Hill Tracts districts, covers 4,479.03 square kilometres and had 481,106 people at the 2022 census. Orchards of cashew, coffee, mango, jackfruit, banana, pineapple, dragon fruit, avocado, malta, orange, lemon and guava had become a common sight, the report said, across all seven upazilas: Sadar, Ruma, Rowangchhari, Thanchi, Lama, Alikadam and Naikhongchhari.

Citing the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Jagonews24 gave these figures for Bandarban Sadar upazila by fiscal year:

• 2021-22: jhum 172 hectares, fruit orchards 4,583 hectares
• 2022-23: jhum 163 hectares, fruit orchards 4,984 hectares
• 2023-24: jhum 140 hectares, fruit orchards 5,007 hectares
• 2024-25: jhum 145 hectares, fruit orchards 5,114 hectares
• 2025-26: jhum 155 hectares, fruit orchards 5,302 hectares

Upazila agriculture officer Md Rakibul Hasan said: "The hill climate and soil of Bandarban are very suitable for growing various fruits. Farmers are being given training, improved seedlings and regular technical support. As a result, fruit production and the area under fruit are growing every year." Jhum farmers also get advice and incentives, he said. The DAE's deputy director in Bandarban, Abu Nayeem Mohammad Saifuddin, declined to give any information.

The report said high-value cashew, coffee, mango, jujube, avocado, dragon fruit, malta and orange were spreading fast and reaching markets across the country. People in the farm sector said the shift was raising incomes and helping to curb soil erosion on the hills.

Ngoi Mro, a grower in the Chimbuk 12 Mile area, said that three years earlier he had farmed jhum on 10 acres there, harvesting 300 ari of paddy (10 kg to an ari) plus companion crops worth about Tk 1.5 lakh. He later planted mango, pomelo and Chandragiri coffee on 3 acres of that land and now earns Tk 6-7 lakh a year from the fruit.

Diptimoy Tanchangya, a Sadar upazila entrepreneur, said he had planted 950 grafted Ball Sundari and Kashmiri jujube seedlings two years earlier on five acres of family jhum land. Being grafted, they fruited in the first year, when he sold Tk 6 lakh worth of jujube against a total cost of Tk 2.5 lakh. He planted another 850 Ball Sundari seedlings the next year and now has more than 1,800 jujube trees on the five acres.

Bajerung Tripura of Balipara union, once a jhum-only farmer, planted 800 cashew trees on part of his jhum land and said he sold 20 maunds one year and 40 the next.

Ringying Mro of Dingte Para in Thanchi upazila planted about 1,500 cashew trees on 5 acres of jhum land in 2010 and said he sold about 150 maunds of cashew from the orchard in 2026. He now keeps orchards alongside his jhum.

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is native to tropical South America. Traditional trees start bearing three years after planting, while dwarf varieties produce after the first year.

Iftekhar Selim Agni, owner of Dipto Agro, said he had planted malta, orange, avocado, year-round drumstick, cashew, chui jhal and other crops on 100 acres of leased land at Jarulia in Naikhongchhari upazila. Most of the trees, planted four years earlier, had begun to bear.

Photo: MOHAMMAD SHAJAHAN Bangladesh / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Wikipedia (Jhum, Bandarban District, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Cashew)