Nur Islam Saddar, son of the late Noimuddin Saddar of Uttar Para in Pipragachhi village, Bagachra union, Sharsha upazila, Jashore, has had remarkable success growing the BARI-11 mango variety. He has been involved in nursery work for 23 years.

Nur Islam first worked as a labourer in various nurseries, and later set up a fruit-tree nursery on a plot of land at his home. In 2018 he collected saplings of the newly developed BARI-11 mango from the Bangladesh Mango Research Centre in Chapainawabganj. In the very first year he used scions (cuttings) from those plants to produce 2,200 saplings.

In 2019 he leased six bighas of land for 10 years, and planted the saplings on his own three bighas and the six leased bighas: BARI-11 on six bighas and Katimon on three. The trees started fruiting two years after planting.

Nur Islam said he began picking mangoes in April this year. Each bigha yielded about 35 maunds, and the mangoes are selling from the orchard at Tk 400 a kg. He currently earns Tk 56,000 a season from one bigha, and over three seasons will earn about Tk 1 lakh 68 thousand.

Traders are coming from different parts of the country to buy his mangoes, and the orchard owner is sending mangoes and saplings by courier. Hearing about sweet mangoes out of season, many people are coming from far away to see the orchard.

Upazila Agriculture Officer Dipak Kumar said: "Growing mangoes out of season is risky work, so I keep regular track of Nur Islam's orchard and give him advice. Farmers like Nur Islam are our pride. If anyone wants to grow new fruits and crops, we are always beside them."

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