Lychee growers in Meherpur are happy with the yield and price. After losses in lychee farming over the past few years, the weather was largely favourable this year and growers are making money. The agriculture department says administrative action will be taken against anyone who markets immature lychees.

Lychees picked from the trees are being gathered in the orchards and sorted into small and large, red and green. Several traders and workers are selecting the juicy fruit and tying it into bundles, with different bundles by colour and size, taking great care to get the much-loved fruit to its destination. They are collecting the lychees from Rustam Ali's orchard in front of the Pourashava College in Meherpur town. The season's first lychees are meeting local demand, and the rest are being sent to Dhaka and other districts.

Ashkar Ali, a lychee grower from the Bus Stand neighbourhood of Meherpur town, told Jagonews that he has tended lychee trees on 30 bighas this year. Along with Anti lychee he has Kolom, Bombai and China Three varieties. An intense heatwave swept the region this season and rain was lacking at the right time, so the lychees are somewhat smaller than hoped. But with a bigger yield than in other years he will profit. A tree that carried 10 counts of lychees last year has 17 counts this year, and market prices are good.

Orchard owner Rustam Ali told Jagonews that there has been an ample lychee harvest this year. He had losses in the past few years, but this time, despite the intense heat, the weather was largely favourable, and the yield is much higher than in other years. If there is no major natural disaster in the next week, he will get the yield he hoped for and a profit.

Orchard owner Mizanur Rahman told Jagonews that he has 11 bighas of lychee orchards. With no disease this year the yield is good, though the fruit is a little smaller. Prices are good, and he is happy with both price and yield.

Makhlechur Rahman, a trader who came from Madaripur to buy lychees, told Jagonews that the district's lychees are in demand across the country.

Shankar Kumar Majumder, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Meherpur, told Jagonews: "Following the agriculture department's advice, growers tended their lychee trees and fruit and got a good yield. The district has lychee orchards on 690 hectares this season, and we expect 4.4 tonnes a hectare."

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