Isahak Munshi, a farmer in Kuakata, Patuakhali, has made a real success of growing mangoes around his homestead. He has sold the mangoes from a single tree for nearly Tk 2 lakh. An orchard started as a hobby now meets the mango demand of a large part of the area, and his fruit has become known across the upazila as "Kuakata mangoes".

Sweet, pesticide-free and of a local variety, the mangoes from this tree sell at Tk 180-200 a kg. He has produced about 40 maunds of mangoes from the one tree. Besides this tree, he has 180-200 mango trees on 3-4 acres around his house, including Fazli, Langra, Ashwina, Himsagar, Lokna, Kiujai, banana mango and other varieties.

These mangoes are sold wholesale at Tk 40-200 a kg, and anyone in the area can take as many as they need from the orchard.

Eight years ago he brought just 50 mango saplings from Rajshahi and planted them around his home as a hobby. Seeing good yields, he expanded and built this orchard. Production has risen every year since, along with demand for his mangoes across the area. He now dreams of selling mangoes worth Tk 5-6 lakh a year.

Ruhul Amin, a neighbour, said: "We no longer have to wait for mangoes from the north, because enough mangoes are now grown in this area. We buy what we need from these orchards."

Alauddin, a farmer in the Kuakata area, said: "When we say Kuakata mangoes, we mean Isahak Munshi's mangoes. He has sold about 35-38 maunds of mangoes from one tree. No one else here has managed that."

Isahak Munshi told Jagonews24: "From one old tree at my house I have already sold mangoes worth more than Tk 1 lakh 80 thousand. With the mangoes still left, the total will be about Tk 2 lakh. It is an old tree, but around my house I have planted 10-12 varieties of mango on about 200 trees."

He added: "There are many other farmers like me in Kuakata and nearby areas. But although we have done well growing mangoes on our own, we are not getting much help or advice from the agriculture office. If the government paid us a little more attention, I hope we could meet the whole demand of this area."

Kalapara upazila agriculture officer ARM Saifullah told Jagonews24 that selling Tk 2 lakh worth of mangoes from one tree is a real success, though there are very few such trees in the upazila. Mango farming in Kalapara has changed considerably over the past 4-5 years, and this year in particular production has been very high. Kalapara has about 200 large and small mango orchards on about 110 hectares, and the upazila is likely to produce more than 250 tonnes of mangoes this year.

He added that the office advises farmers before they start an orchard and keeps an eye on their methods. But it has had no opportunity to provide saplings or pesticides; if an allocation is made later, the office will distribute them.

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