Agricultural entrepreneur Sakhawat Hossain Babul of Chuadanga has built a huge orchard of sweet malta (orange). The 40-bigha orchard has produced a heavy crop this year.

Chuadanga, rich in fruit and crops, still shows the landscape and beauty of rural Bengal. The Moragang at Hogoldanga in Damurhuda upazila looks like a painted picture, and the malta orchard runs along its bank. On 40 bighas, the fruit on 4,000 malta trees outdoes the density of the leaves.

Last year the orchard gave 150 maunds of malta, and this year the yield is higher. Green malta is sent to market from the trees with leaves attached. Thanks to the entrepreneur, people are tasting completely chemical-free local fruit.

The government's Year-Round Fruit Production for Nutrition Improvement project is giving technical support to this largest orchard of the sweet BARI Malta-1 variety. The natural beauty of the place suggests it could also become a rich site for agro-tourism.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Hridoye Mati O Manush. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.