Young agricultural entrepreneur Md Omar Sharif has succeeded in growing the Western fruit avocado on a trial basis for the first time in Mirsarai, Chattogram. His trees began bearing fruit last year, and he has decided to expand the orchard and also sell seedlings.

Avocado is a nutritious, tasty fruit with medicinal qualities and a promising foreign fruit for cultivation in Bangladesh. It is among the foreign fruits whose cultivation is gaining popularity in the country. Because it is less sweet than other fruit, it suits people with diabetes. The fruit is shaped much like a guava or pear, and each weighs about 400–800 grams, with a fairly large oval seed inside. The edible part is smooth like butter with a mildly sweet taste. Like papaya, it can be eaten raw or ripe, as a vegetable, mashed, in salads or in drinks. Using avocado cream instead of butter on toast, or instead of mayonnaise in salads and sandwiches, is considered healthy.

At Zohra Agro Farms and Nursery, avocados, a fruit highly beneficial to the human body, were seen hanging in bunches from the trees. The fruit is not yet fully mature and will grow bigger over the next few days, after which the owner will harvest it.

Omar Sharif's orchard has many local and foreign fruit trees besides avocado. They include the costly Miyazaki (Surjodim) mango, Kiuzai, Banana Mango, Indonesian Brunei King, King of Chakapat, Alfenso, Alfanchun and Thai banana. There are also cinnamon, clove, pulasan, rambutan, apple, tamarind, Thai sapodilla, chenak fruit, Thai barikedet malta, year-round malta, Chinese orange, Darjeeling orange, China-3 litchi, latkan, Vietnamese coconut and Sri Lankan coconut.

"A few years ago I collected 10 avocado seedlings from Indonesia and planted them in my orchard," said Md Omar Sharif, owner of Zohra Agro Farms and Nursery. "Some of the trees started fruiting last year. This year three trees have fruit, and the three should give about 120 kg. We will harvest and market them in a few days. My nursery will sell avocado seedlings collected from Thailand."

Kazi Nurul Alam, sub-assistant agriculture officer of Mirsarai upazila, said: "I did not know about avocado farming in the upazila. I will visit Omar Sharif's orchard. Many people now grow nutritious foreign fruits. Avocado is full of nutrients and helps prevent various diseases. It works well as a diet food for people with high blood pressure, diabetes and other illnesses."

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