Tk 1.95b project to boost fruit output

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Talha Bin Habib | Published: September 03, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

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The government has taken up a Tk 1.95-billion project to help boost the production of local varieties of fruits to meet their growing demand, officials said.
The main aim of the project is to narrow the gap between supply and demand.   
The demand for local fruits is estimated at around 10 million tonnes annually against the production of 4.5 million tonnes.
The project titled "Year-round fruit production for nutrition improvement" aimed at attaining self-sufficiency in production of local varieties of fruits.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) which is under the ministry of agriculture (MoA) is implementing the project in different areas of the country by planting high-yielding varieties of fruit saplings.
Under the project, a total of 20,000 saplings of early variety mango were planted in the hill districts.  
The trees will yield fruits two years after planting during the Bangla month of Chaitra and Boishakh.
Each of the trees could yield, on average, one maund of mangoes annually, totalling 20,000 tonnes. The price of early variety mango is around Tk 200 per kg.
Early mango varieties of mango include surat bombai, gobindabogh and golapghas.
The prices of those varieties of mangoes are about Tk 200 per kg.  
Late variety: A total of 15,000 late varieties of mangoes' saplings were planted in Chapainawabgaj, Takurgaon, Rangpur, Jessore, Magura and Meherpur.
Each of the trees could yield 50-kg of mangoes after three years of planting. The names of mango varieties are: panchagari aum rupali, ranimatia and jinuk ashina fazli etc.
Prices of these mangoes range from Tk 200 and Tk 250 per kg.     
And after seven to eight years each of the trees could yield 250 kg of mangoes annually. And after 15-20 years, each of the trees could yield one tonne of fruits.   
The DAE has also planted 40,000 BARI Malta-1 across the county. Each of the trees will yield fruits from the third year of plantation with 100 BARI-malta-1 by each tree.
The government will purchase every single malta at Tk 20 from the farmers.
The DAE has distributed 40,000 dwarf varieties of coconut saplings. The variety was imported from Vietnam and India.
"Each of the households in the rural areas will get 10 dwarf varieties of coconut saplings to increase production," Mehedi Masood, project director of DAE, told the FE.   
He said during the five-year project the DAE will distribute 250,000 saplings of dwarf varieties of coconut.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com