Why Local Malta Farming Is Growing in Rangpur
Farmers in the Rangpur region are planting more malta each year after finding it profitable on small plots, with local fruit filling the city's wholesale markets.
Farmers in the Rangpur region are planting more malta each year after finding it profitable on small plots, with local fruit filling the city's wholesale markets.
A quiet revolution in growing the local BARI Malta-1 is slowly reducing Bangladesh's reliance on imported malta, though consumers still favour foreign fruit.
Green malta grown on 135 hectares in three upazilas of Brahmanbaria is earning farmers good profits at low cost, with 2,700 tonnes expected this year.
A returned migrant worker in Nilphamari has made a success of growing malta without chemical fertiliser or pesticide, encouraging other farmers in the area.
Malta farming is catching on in Jhalokati, led by Nalchity grower Shah Alam Howlader, whose saplings have seeded more than 150 orchards among local young people.
Profitable yields are driving commercial malta cultivation in Khagrachhari, and the hill-grown fruit now sells across Bangladesh.
Farmers in Naogaon are increasingly growing malta, a sweet citrus fruit, as other crops' prices fall and costs rise.
Graduate Rina Akter, who could not find a job, has made a success of malta farming in the Barind area of Naogaon's Dhamoirhat.
FruitsIn Damurhuda, Chuadanga, Shakhawat Hossain Babul has built what he and experts say is the country's largest malta orchard, with 4,000 trees on 40 bighas.