Humayun Ahmed started an orchard as a hobby. That orchard now grows 18 kinds of fruit, including a year-round African mango and a Pakistani "tri" lemon. In just four years he has begun to enjoy financial security, and the orchard's income has made him the owner of lakhs of taka. Following his example, many young men have started to dream too.

Humayun Ahmed is from Koirati village in Sadar upazila. After passing his HSC he worked for a company for a while. In 2014 he started a mixed fruit orchard on just 5 decimals in his yard as an experiment. From the start he wanted to do something out of the ordinary, so instead of local trees he collected grafts of the African year-round mango from India. The orchard was expanded the next year and now covers 2 acres in two plots.

He has not looked back since. Besides the African year-round mango, 18 kinds of fruit grow there. The orchard has 120 African year-round mango trees, 65 Amrapali mango trees, 6 Suborno Rekha mango trees, 400 Pakistani hybrid lemon (tri lemon) trees and 110 China-1 and China-3 lychee trees. There are also orange, malta, pomegranate, grape, latkan, bilimbi, jamrul (wax apple), Poly guava, China guava, Bau kul, apple kul, London lemon and betel nut trees. His African year-round mango and Pakistani hybrid lemon have caused a real stir in the area.

Humayun Ahmed said mangoes are selling in the local market at Tk 400 to 500 a kg, oranges at Tk 200 a kg and lemons at Tk 30 to 40 a hali (four). Over the past year he made a profit of Tk 4 lakh 77 thousand from selling 4 tonnes of mangoes, 6 tonnes of lemons and 500 kg of lychees. He has earned about Tk 60 lakh from the orchard so far. From that income, after household costs, he has bought 4 kathas of land for Tk 12 lakh and taken 10 kathas on mortgage for Tk 50,000.

For his success, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) gave him its "Best of Merit 2018" award, and the year-round mango he grows has been named "Humayun-12". Besides Koirati, the mango is now grown in three more villages, including Uluati and Shunura. Inspired by him, Ershad Mia, Khokon Mia and Sheikh Chan of Koirati and Khandaker Anisur Rahman of Shunura have set up year-round and Amrapali mango orchards and become well off.

A tour of the orchard showed mangoes hanging in bunches from every tree, with new blossom also appearing. Each African year-round mango weighs 800 grams to a maximum of 1,600 grams. The lemons weigh 250 grams each on average.

Agriculturist Md Habibur Rahman, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Netrokona, said: "Seeing the good yields and market prices of Humayun Ahmed's orchard, many people are coming forward. The agriculture department has given him training and encouraged him to adopt improved farming."

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