The seasonal mango crop in Naogaon's orchards is all but over — Amrapali, Langra, Gopalbhog, Khirsapat, Nakfazli, BARI-4 and Fazli, and even the foreign Banana Mango and Miyazaki, have left the trees. The exception is Barind Agro, the orchard of entrepreneur Sohel Rana in Sapahar upazila, where row after row of trees still carry the late variety Gourmoti and the year-round Katimon.

A resident of Sapahar, known as the country's mango capital, Sohel Rana took a top degree in statistics from Rajshahi University and chose a 75-bigha orchard over a job. He has sold more than Tk 1 crore of conventional mango this season, and now has Gourmoti on 1,800 trees and Katimon on 1,700; Gourmoti went to market from the second week of August and Katimon from the first week of September.

He expects 400 maunds of Gourmoti and 450 of Katimon. At an average Tk 7,000 a maund the Katimon should bring Tk 31.5 lakh, and Gourmoti at no less than Tk 8,000 a maund about Tk 32 lakh — some Tk 63 lakh of off-season mango in all. The orchard draws visitors daily, many hoping to plant something similar, and gives at least ten local unemployed youths work at Tk 600 a day.

Growing late Gourmoti and year-round Katimon alongside the seasonal varieties is spreading in Naogaon, and the late harvest fetches better prices. Md Monjur Rahman, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Naogaon, said the department is giving mango growers advice and support. Growers are moving towards profitable, exportable mango, but want government attention to storage and to opening large-scale export.

Based on BSS's Naogaon report. Source: BSS