Mongmong Sing Marma of Rowangchhari upazila in Bandarban has changed his fortunes by growing dragon fruit as a hobby. He began in 2020 with more than a hundred dragon fruit saplings and now has more than 1,600 plants on five acres. Alongside earning lakhs of taka this season, he dreams of earning a crore. Because the district's hill climate and soil are fertile, any fruit grown there is yielding well, and with fair prices on offer, most jhum farmers are now turning to fruit orchards.

Mongmong Sing, from the Jamchhari area of Rowangchhari, is a development worker. In 2020 he planted a few hundred dragon fruit plants as a hobby, then began to dream of profiting commercially. In three years he has built an orchard of 1,600 dragon fruit plants on five acres of hill slope, with seven varieties including red, yellow and white. He also grows mango, orange and guava and dreams of becoming a millionaire. As he pursues his dream, he has become an inspiration to local people.

On a visit to his orchard, a team of eight was busy harvesting dragon fruit. Some carried thurungs (baskets) full of fruit on their shoulders; others packed the fruit for market. Five women and three men work in his orchard regularly, and the dragon fruit orchards have created jobs for many men and women in the area. Mongmong Sing said the yield this year is lower than last year because drought first destroyed the flowers.

He said there are about 200 species of dragon fruit in the world. His orchard has seven Vietnamese and Brazilian varieties, including red, white, yellow and green. It also holds 35 kinds of fruit in all, including local and foreign mangoes, malta, and foreign fruits such as rambutan, longan, Kashmiri apple, BARI-4, Katimon and Subarna Rekha. From May to October he can pick fruit twice a month, collecting about 2 tonnes of dragon fruit each time. With a good yield this year, he hopes to harvest 9 tonnes.

He set up the orchard of 1,600 dragon fruit plants on 600 concrete pillars on five acres of sloping hill land in Jamchhari at a cost of about Tk 5-6 lakh. The plants began to fruit just 14 months after planting. With a good yield this year, he will be able to sell 9 tonnes of fruit. Last year he sold 6 tonnes for Tk 9 lakh; this year he expects to sell Tk 13 lakh worth. Selling dragon fruit cuttings from the orchard has also opened up extra income.

Mongmong Sing said: "There are now 6,000 plants on 1,350 pillars. I started getting fruit in 2021. In 2023 I picked about 3 tonnes in three days. At present I sell wholesale from the orchard at Tk 150 a kg. Even if the orchard doesn't make a big profit, there is no loss. Profits are lower because the prices of fertiliser and pesticide have gone up."

Wholesaler Uttam Das said he buys from the orchard at Tk 150 a kg and supplies the fruit to cities across the country, where it sells retail at Tk 200 a kg. But when carrying the fruit out, he has to pay tolls to the Hill District Council twice, and extortion to various groups on the road as well. As a result, he said, farmers do not get a fair price.

Agriculturist MM Shah Neyaz, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Bandarban, told Jago News: "Dragon fruit cultivation is increasing in the hill region. The Bandarban agriculture department is giving farmers all the advice and support they need. In 2021-22 dragon fruit was grown on 35 hectares in the district; this year it is grown on 50 hectares. There is demand for dragon fruit, and if it can be marketed properly, farmers will profit more."

Reported by Nayan Chakraborty.

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