Samaul Islam, an entrepreneur in Gopalganj, has built a 22-acre seedless lemon orchard with about 12,000 trees. Picking and selling lemons year-round earns him about half a crore taka (Tk 5 million) a year, and his fruit now goes beyond the local market to other parts of the country.
He began six years ago on two and a half acres of leased land and, as the orchard paid off, gradually expanded it. Twenty-five local workers are now employed there.
The lemons are seedless, juicy and fragrant, and the trees bear fruit all year. Demand and prices rise in the Bengali months of Falgun, Chaitra and Baishakh (roughly February to May). He does not have to take his crop to distant markets: wholesalers come to the orchard and sell the lemons on in Gopalganj, Dhaka and elsewhere.
The Gopalganj Agricultural Research Station of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) supported him with saplings, fertiliser, fungicide, training and technical advice. Samaul said he built the orchard through hard work and that unemployed young people could earn well from lemon farming.
Dr Mamunur Rahman, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Gopalganj, said fruit farming gives farmers income throughout the year. Following Samaul's success, at least 10 commercial lemon orchards have been set up in Muksudpur and nearby areas, and he expects profitable fruit farming to spread further if the department's support continues.
Starting small on leased land, expanding in steps and selling wholesale from the farm gate are practical lessons for new fruit growers. The report is by Krishi Shomoy's Gopalganj correspondent.
Photo: Jeevan Jose / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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