With proper care, Md Zillur Rahman of Pangsha upazila in Rajbari is dreaming big just one year after planting a mixed fruit orchard. Several foreign grape varieties, including Russian ones, as well as oranges and malta are fruiting in his orchard, which has five foreign grape varieties, three orange varieties and malta among nearly 700 fruit saplings. Colourful grapes, malta and oranges hang from the trees, with a few months still to go before harvest. Zillu is happy to be producing foreign fruit free of poison, and new entrepreneurs come from far and wide every day to see the orchard.

Zillur Rahman lives in Bhellabaria village of Yashai union in Pangsha upazila. Aiming to cut imports of foreign fruit and grow completely poison-free fruit, he became interested in late 2023 after watching YouTube and visiting the orchard of Sarwar Hossain Babu in Rajbari Sadar. He then collected saplings from that orchard and started a mixed orchard on about 5 bighas around his home and in the field. He now has Darjeeling, Mandarin and China orange varieties on 3 bighas, Vietnamese malta on 1 bigha, and the grape varieties Ekelo, Summer Royal, Apolia Rose, Valez and Halloween from Russia and Italy on 16 decimals.

Sarwar Hossain Babu is a successful mixed fruit grower in Rajbari. He surprised everyone by planting the first orchard of foreign grapes, oranges and malta in Rajbari, and many people in and outside the district now take saplings from him. Hatem Ali, who tends the orchard, said: "Several of us have looked after the orchard from the start. Now the trees we cared for are bearing grapes, oranges and malta, which is lovely to see. And many people come from far away every day to see the orchard."

Neighbour Akmal Hossain Mia, visitor Abdur Razzak and others said: "It's wonderful to see the orchard, with colourful grapes on the vines and fruit on the orange and malta trees. If we can grow these foreign fruits on our own soil we'll gain a lot and bring other countries' money into ours. If the orchard owner gets government support he'll benefit, and we'll be inspired too. We won't have to import fruit any more."

Sarwar Hossain Babu said: "Zillu bhai made his orchard with saplings from me. I was amazed when I came to see it: this orchard has more fruit than mine. If farmers in other parts of the country start orchards like this with the agriculture department's help, Bangladesh will become self-reliant in this fruit, and won't need to import any. People will be able to eat completely poison-free fruit."

Md Zillur Rahman said: "I became interested after visiting Sarwar Hossain Babu's mixed orchard in Rajbari. About a year ago I brought saplings from his orchard and planted foreign grapes, oranges and malta on 5 bighas. The orchard has about 600 orange and 50 malta trees along with many grapevines, and all of them are now fruiting. I've largely succeeded in producing poison-free fruit, and seeing me, many others have started such orchards."

Golam Rasul, training officer of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Rajbari district, said: "We encourage mixed fruit growers in various ways. Their advantage is that if one crop yields poorly, another does well. But the grape is mainly a fruit of cold countries. Many farmers in our country are now planting such orchards on their own initiative, among them Sarwar Hossain Babu of Baghmara in Rajbari Sadar. Visiting his orchard, I saw several foreign grape varieties and other fruit trees, and the yield is good. Many are following his example. However, Rajbari's soil is unsuitable for these fruits. In that case, if oranges and malta are harvested on time the fruit will be juicy and farmers will get a good market price."

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