The jackfruit season has brought a festive mood to rural Mymensingh. Ripe jackfruit hangs from the trees across wide areas of Bhaluka, Phulbaria, Muktagachha, Trishal and Gaffargaon. Farmers should have been pleased with this season's bumper crop, but for lack of adequate storage, cold stores and a processing industry, that joy has turned to frustration.

With oversupply in the markets and the fruit perishing quickly, farmers are not getting fair prices. In many cases jackfruit is rotting on the trees, and fruit that fails to sell at the markets is going bad.

According to the agriculture department and local sources, the high red-soil land of the Mymensingh region is very well suited to jackfruit. Yields are especially heavy this year in Bhaluka and Phulbaria upazilas. In Bhaluka upazila alone jackfruit is grown on 385 hectares, and output is estimated at more than 43,000 tonnes.

Busy jackfruit markets open from dawn every day at Seedstore Bazar, Bharadoba, Mallikbari, Biruniya and Masterbari in Bhaluka and at various markets in Phulbaria and Muktagachha. Although jackfruit worth lakhs of taka is sold at these markets every day, a large share of the money goes to middlemen and wholesalers.

Abdul Karim, a jackfruit grower in Meduari in Bhaluka, told Jagonews24: "The trees are loaded with jackfruit this year, but prices are so low that we cannot even cover costs. A jackfruit that sells for Tk 200-250 in Dhaka, we are forced to sell here for Tk 30-50."

Saiful Islam, a farmer in Phulbaria, said: "Jackfruit cannot be kept for more than a few days. If there were a cold store, we could keep it for a while when the market is bad. Now we have to sell at whatever price the wholesalers name."

Local traders say wholesalers come from Dhaka, Sylhet, Cumilla, Noakhali and other regions to buy jackfruit. But because farmers have no way to store it, they are in a weak bargaining position and are forced to sell cheaply.

According to agriculturists, 25 to 45 per cent of the jackfruit produced in Bangladesh is lost after harvest, and the same picture is seen in Mymensingh. When a huge quantity ripens at once, supply in the market surges and unsold fruit spoils within a short time. Many farmers are forced to feed unsold jackfruit to their livestock.

Md Moshiur Rahman, an agricultural entrepreneur in Muktagachha, told Jagonews24: "Jackfruit production in Mymensingh is rising, but no modern system of storage and processing has been developed, so farmers face big financial losses every year. If a modern cold store or jackfruit processing centre were set up in the Bhaluka and Phulbaria area, farmers would get fair prices and waste of the national fruit would fall significantly."

There is currently no government processing centre for storing or processing jackfruit in Mymensingh, said Selina Parvin, additional deputy director (horticulture) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

"Considering the potential for jackfruit-based industry in this region, a plan to set up a processing centre is being considered, possibly in the Bhaluka area," she told Jagonews24.

"In developed countries, juice, chips and various nutritious food products are made from jackfruit. If jackfruit is seen not only as a seasonal fruit but as an industrial product, waste can be reduced greatly," she said.

There is great potential for processing green jackfruit for long-term storage, making juice, jam, jelly, candy and squash from ripe jackfruit, and producing nutritious flour from jackfruit seeds, and demand for these products is rising in international markets too.

"If a modern jackfruit processing centre can be set up in Mymensingh, farmers will get fair prices for their jackfruit. Jackfruit-based industry will also create jobs in the region and open new possibilities for the farm economy," the additional deputy director said.

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