Severe drought and heat in Ishwardi, Pabna, are making young litchi fruit drop from the trees, and growers fear a crop failure. The Mozaffarpuri variety, known locally as the deshi litchi, is shedding the most fruitlets, and the Bombai litchi has also started to drop.

Ishwardi is famous for its juicy, sweet litchi. The trees flower at the start of the Bengali month of Chaitra and small green fruit appear from the blossom by the end of it. This year every tree carried a record amount of blossom and the fruit set was good, so growers had high hopes. But the intense heat of the past 15 days has started to shed the fruitlets, and growers fear their hopes will be dashed.

According to the upazila agriculture office, litchi is grown on 3,100 hectares in Ishwardi this year. Favourable weather in Chaitra brought good blossom and fruit set on every tree, and the agriculture department and growers had been expecting a good yield.

In the upazila's litchi villages, including Mirkamari, Maniknagar, Baktarpur, Jagannathpur, Bansherbada, Joynagar, Sahapur, Aotapara and Char Sahapur, rows of litchi orchards line the roads, with green fruitlets hanging among the leaves. There is more fruit this year than in the past few years, and almost every tree is heavily laden.

Amjad Hossain, a litchi grower in Baktarpur village, told Jagonews that the trees had a record bloom this year, but the fruitlets had been damaged by several days of scorching heat. Temperatures are now 36 to 38 degrees Celsius, and the strong sun and heat have started to shed the fruit. If the drop continues, he said, growers' hopes of a good harvest will be ruined.

Jahurul Islam, a grower in Maniknagar village, said both the blossom and the fruit set were better than in recent years, but the drought of the last few days had started to shed the fruitlets. Some fruit drops every year because of the heat, he said; a drop of 10 to 20 per cent is normal, but farmers lose out if it goes beyond that. He is spraying water and chemicals at night and in the morning to try to stop the drop.

Mostafa Zaman Nayan, a pesticide and fertiliser trader in Maniknagar, said growers were coming to him for advice on stopping the drop, and his shop was supplying pesticides after consulting agriculture officials.

National award-winning litchi grower Abdul Jalil (Kitab Mondol) told Jagonews that the fruitlets were dropping, but not at an abnormal rate. Orchards are being irrigated to limit the drop, which should ease considerably once the weather returns to normal, he said. As every tree carries more fruit than in other years, growers still expect a good yield.

Ishwardi upazila agriculture officer Abdul Momin said the trees had plenty of blossom and a good fruit set this year, but the fruitlets had begun to drop in the intense heat of the past few days. Farmers are being advised to spray and irrigate their orchards regularly.

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