In a few days the whole village will be busy with the festival of lychee picking. The fame of the lychee has spread across the country for its juiciness, sweetness and deep red colour. Favourable weather has brought the hoped-for yield this year, and growers expect lychee trade worth Tk 10 crore.

This is the lychee of Mangalbaria, a small village to the south-east of the Pakundia municipal area in Kishoreganj. The fruit is named after the village: "Mangalbaria lychee".

Although many varieties of lychee reach the local market, buyers have their eyes on the juicy, tasty Mangalbaria lychee. Buyers from the capital Dhaka and other parts of the country crowd into Mangalbaria village to taste it.

The lychee sells at a high price in the orchard itself: 100 lychees currently sell for Tk 600. Most of Mangalbaria's orchards are sold in advance, and some wholesalers buy trees ahead of time and sell the lychees at a premium. Growers and wholesalers expect good prices again this year.

Inquiries show that about 200 years ago someone brought a single sapling from faraway China and planted it in Mangalbaria village, in the municipal area of Pakundia upazila. Local people were full of praise for the lychee for its heavy yield, juiciness and small seed. Soon grafted saplings of the variety spread to every house in the village, and because it was profitable, villagers quickly took up commercial production. Today the trees grace homesteads throughout the area.

According to the Pakundia upazila agriculture office, about 200 families in Mangalbaria are involved in lychee farming. The variety has also spread to the neighbouring villages of Kumarpur, Narandi and Hosendi. Growers expect to sell about Tk 10 crore worth of lychee from the orchards this year.

Lychee grower Shafir Uddin said his father was long involved in lychee farming and he now grows lychee too. He has 50-60 lychee trees and has benefited financially, earning Tk 1 lakh to Tk 1.5 lakh a year. He also runs a bee farm and a lychee sapling business.

Local lychee trader Tauhid Mia said: "I bought 105 trees for Tk 2 lakh and spent Tk 1 lakh on care. I hope to sell at least Tk 5 lakh worth of lychee here, because there is no need to take this lychee to market: it sells under the trees. People come to this village from different parts of the country to buy it."

Ashikuzzaman Ashik, who had come to Mangalbaria to buy lychee, told Jagonews: "I come to Mangalbaria every year to buy lychee. It is very tasty."

Another buyer, Sonia Akter, said: "I had heard a lot of praise for Mangalbaria's lychee, so this time I came straight to the village to buy it. It really is as juicy and tasty as I had heard."

Zakaria Hossain, a salaried employee who came from Narsingdi, said: "I heard about Mangalbaria's tasty lychee on social media and came from Narsingdi to buy it. I ate a lot of lychees sitting in the orchard, and bought some for my family, relatives and friends."

Local lychee trader Md Mamun Mia said: "I was abroad for five years. As soon as I came home on leave I started a lychee business. Many local young men like me profit from the lychee trade in this season."

Moniruzzaman Helal, general secretary of the Mangalbaria village lychee association, told Jagonews: "My family has 45 lychee trees. Lychee sales in this season are an extra source of income for us. New orchards are being planted in the village every year, and many people are creating orchards by planting lychee trees on the ridges around their land."

Maidul Haque, sub-assistant agriculture officer for the municipality, said a lychee association of Mangalbaria's growers has been formed this year, and workshops on lychee farming have been held through it under the supervision of the agriculture office. Three more sub-assistant agriculture officers have been given responsibility so that farmers benefit.

Pakundia upazila agriculture officer Nur-e-Alam said Mangalbaria's soil is suitable for lychee and the lychee produced in the village is extremely tasty. Every lychee is pink, with thick, juicy flesh and an incomparable aroma.

He said about 200 families in Mangalbaria are involved in lychee farming, and lychee is also grown in the neighbouring villages of Kumarpur, Narandi and Hosendi. Growers will be able to sell about Tk 10 crore worth of lychee from the orchards this year, and the upazila agriculture department is giving them all kinds of advice and technical support on production.

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