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Lemon farmers enjoys profit

Shykh Seraj
I visited Raghunathpur back in 2004 and was introduced to a Lemon farmer named Ibrahim Sarkar. An ambitious elderly man, he pioneered profitable lemon farming in this region and thus opened the door for a lot of local farmers to be self-sufficient.He passed away a few years back but his endeavors didn't stop. We visited Raghumathpur again recently to find out the consequences of the quest that Ibrahim Sarkar had once started.
I met Mainuddin, a thriving lemon farmer and spoke to him. He has a fourteen katha (measurement of land) worth lemon orchard that contains about 1,500 trees. I visited his orchard. The lemon are healthy and luscious and it is Mainuddin's key profitable crop. He added that he is highly regarded as a people of the area because of his success as a lemon farmer. He purchased new lands, got his four daughters married and runs his household smoothly.
The locals are getting more inclined to producing lemon alongside vegetables and fish farming than paddy and other key crops because lemon farming according is more profitable. He pointed out some drawbacks the attack of a certain disease or bacteria to be precise, because of which the lemon loses its natural colour and the farmers subsequently do not get fair price. When asked about the local Agricultural Department's intervention, he said that they have been reluctant about providing them (farmers) proper solutions.
It's amazing how a farm-ing method expands through a handful of people, starting with Ibrahim Sarkar and Mainuddin and reaching other farmers. Chan Miah is one of them. After retiring from his job, he felt like contribution
rather than passing time with trifle activities and hence got involved in producing lemon. The size of his orchard is twelve Katha. His yearly income from the orchard has now peaked to Tk. 1 to 1.5 lakh although according to him, he has earned Tk. 2 lakh in his first year of farming because the demand for lemon was greater back then. But he still manages to earn around Tk. 3 to Tk. 3.5 lakh every year as he produces more lemons than ever.
Like Mainuddin, Chan Miah too, described the attack of certain bacteria and insects as the key issues in producing lemons. To prevent this, they require timely and proper irrigation and pesticides. They usually use machines for irrigation but these machines becomes unavailable during the IRRI seasons as the rice fields all around requires irrigation at that time, and they get deprived.
Profitable Lemon farming has become a booming field through the whole region and it's benefitting the farmers more than ever before. I meet with retired Army Sergeant Harun Ur Rashid who took up farming as a profession. He started off with a Lemon orchard and earned quite well from it in eight years time.
Starting with key cash crops like rice and jute on the lands he owns, he, however, finally landed on lemon farming as it is more profitable than the aforementioned crops. He added that the cost of producing a maund of rice is Tk. 800 to Tk. 850 taka and they sell for 500 taka. So, there was an obvious loss of Tk. three hundred per maund. This is why he and fellow farmers shifted to Lemon farming. He's been producing lemons for the last four years on his five katha worth orchard. He started off with around Tk. five to seven thousand included planting and main-
tenance cost. The lemon came out and matured after a year and he earned Tk. fifty thousand. His overall income so far from the orchard sums up to Tk. two lakh that includes Tk. twenty five thousand in the current year alone. He added that there are more lemons in the orchard that are yet to be picked from the trees and his estimated profit from the remaining lemons are more than twenty thousand and according to him, the overall benefit from this year would be Tk. Seventy to Tk. Seventy Five thousand.
Lemon in this region is of a high value crop. Farmers are inclined towards such crops out of profitable significance. And the more they are switching, the scope of rice and other crops are declining. Although the downward rate hasn't reached to an alarming stage yet, the way farmers are shifting to other crops, it will be soon. The question is why the farmers are losing interest in rice farming? We asked Mr. Harun Ur Rashid. He said that he's aware of this matter but the preference in choosing lemon was
highly effective for his and others' survival as farmers. He also added that if producing rice was more profitable, they would certainly choose that.
We know that Sylhet and Moulavibazar are the main regions for Lemon farming. Other than that, Narsingdi is well known for producing a variety of Lemon called Colombo that is exported to foreign countries. Lemon farming in Mymensingh once originated through the hands of Ibrahim Sarkar and it has now expanded miles further. But in recent times it has been difficult for the farmers due to different diseases of Lemon and other issues. According to the farmers, the Agriculture Extension Department has been reluctant and are failing to keep up with farmers' enthusiasm of adopting new crop farming and techniques and hence the problem remains. We hope that the relevant bodies will take proper measurement to ensure the flourishing lemon farmers are kept interested and to help make Ibrahim Sarkar's dreams come true.