Thanks to favourable weather and care, Moulvibazar has had a good orange crop this year. Yield per hectare is up by 1 tonne and the area under cultivation has grown by 190 acres over last year. But insect attacks are making the fruit drop before it ripens. Growers are getting good prices because the fruit is large, but are disappointed with their profits.

The district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) says Nagpuri, Darjeeling and Khasi oranges are grown, Khasi most of all. This year oranges were grown on 440 acres in the district: 150 acres in Barlekha, 230 in Juri and 120 in Kulaura, with the remaining 10 acres in other upazilas, as the DAE gives the figures. Last year the area was 250 acres, so it has risen by 190 acres. In 146 large and small orchards, yield this year was 5.5 tonnes a hectare against 4.5 tonnes last year, a rise of 1 tonne. There are more than 500 orange growers in the district.

In the orchards of the hilly Rupachhara and Lalchhara areas of Goalbari union in Juri upazila, the trees were not laden, but none was bare. Oranges were being picked, sorted and packed into baskets in orchard after orchard, and traders were buying them and taking them in small trucks to Sylhet and elsewhere. Almost every hillock in the area has an orchard, large or small, and orange trees also grow beside houses.

Grower Joynul Islam said oranges drop from the trees every day. When the gandhi bug walks over an orange the fruit falls; the insect drives a needle-like sting into it. They have used various traps on the agriculture department's advice, but to no avail.

Murshed Mia, a grower from Lalchhara village in Juri, said he has about 1,200 orange trees. As soon as the fruit starts to ripen, an insect sucks out the juice and the fruit rots, so they are selling half-ripe oranges. He is selling 100 oranges to local traders for Tk 200 to Tk 800.

Growers said a tree bears from 50 to 1,000 oranges, but 40 per cent are dropping, so they sell early. Many growers also sell in advance out of need, and so do not get a fair price. They are asking for government help with irrigation pumps, fertiliser and pest control. There used to be an orange cultivation project, but it has been closed since 2008, and growers want it restarted.

The district DAE says branches should be pruned just after the monsoon and trees irrigated in the dry season. Irrigating from Poush to Falgun in particular reduces disease and pest attacks. Pests on orange trees can be controlled with insecticide, and in citrus fruits such diseases can be controlled by spraying a fungicide three times at 15-day intervals.

Lutful Bari, deputy director of the district DAE, said they have been training and advising farmers on controlling orange diseases and pests for several years. Growers have been told about balanced production methods, and those who followed them got good yields. Without proper management, he said, trees cannot hold on to all the fruit they set.

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