Nur Islam Sardar of Bagachra in Sharsha, Jashore, has had remarkable success growing the BARI-11 mango. He has become self-reliant by cultivating this "baromashi" (year-round) variety. Reaching the market out of season, the mango is in good demand and sells at Tk 400 a kg.

Nur Islam Sardar, a mango grower from Pipragachhi village in Bagachra union, said the new variety developed by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) had brought comfort back to his household. He said Himsagar, Fazli, Langra, Amrapali and other varieties are in demand at home and abroad, but because they fruit in one season they are not available all year. The new BARI-11 variety, however, is available year-round.

Nur Islam said he has been involved with nurseries for 23 years. He first worked as a labourer in other people's nurseries and later set up a fruit nursery beside his home. Alongside the nursery, he had long planned to plant a mango orchard. With help and advice from the local agriculture office, in 2018 he collected saplings of the newly developed BARI-11 variety from the Bangladesh Mango Research Centre in Chapainawabganj. In the first year he produced 2,200 saplings from them by grafting scions.

The following year he planted his own BARI-11 saplings on 3 bighas of his own land and 3 bighas of leased land. The trees began bearing fruit when they were two years old. Picking began in January this year, yielding 35 to 40 maunds of mangoes per bigha, which he sells from the orchard at Tk 400 a kg.

"Last year I sold about Tk 4 lakh worth of mangoes and made a profit of more than Tk 3 lakh. Growing the mangoes costs about Tk 1 lakh a year. So far this year I have sold Tk 1 lakh 60 thousand worth of mangoes and about Tk 80,000 worth of grafted saplings of this variety," he said.

Saying the trees fruit three times a year, Nur Islam added: "It is possible to earn Tk 1 lakh 68 thousand per bigha a year."

The local agriculture office said many educated unemployed young people in the area were being inspired by Nur Islam's success to grow BARI-11, and growers are being given the technical help and advice they need. The upazila has 3,144 mango orchards of the Himsagar, Langra, Fazli, Gopalbhog, Amrapali and Mallika varieties. This season more than 2,000 growers have planted mangoes on at least 959 hectares.

Agriculture extension officer Tarun Bala said: "In this upazila, Langra is grown on 132 hectares, Himsagar on 420 hectares, Rupali on 190 hectares, BARI-4 on 15 hectares, Katimon on 2 hectares and other varieties on 200 hectares. BARI-4, BARI-11 and Katimon trees fruit three times a year. Because the mangoes come out of season, farmers get good prices, so many are showing interest in these varieties."

Sharsha upazila agriculture officer Pratap Kumar Mandal said: "Producing mangoes out of season is a risky business, so I keep a constant watch on Nur Islam's orchard and give advice. Farmers like Nur Islam are our pride. If anyone wants to grow new fruits and crops, we are always beside them. Because this mango reaches the market out of season, he is getting a good price."

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