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Good yield of juicy oranges in three northern districts

Star Country Desk
Thakurgaon, Panchagarh and Dinajpur districts see a good yield of orange this season, much to the satisfaction of growers and consumers in the area that produces the popular fruit with likable sizes, colours and tastes.
Locally grown oranges have already started arriving in the markets of Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts, reports our Thakurgaon correspondent.
Commercial cultivation of orange in the two districts gained popularity under the government's 2006-2011 Orange Orchard Development Project (ODP), said officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and farmers.
The climate and soil quality of Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts are suitable for orange cultivation as the area is near Indian districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Shiliguri where high quality oranges are grown for long, they said.
Although the prospective orange farming suffered a setback due to lack of technical support after closure of the project in 2011, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts are expected to produce about 337 and 195 tonnes of orange this season, DAE sources said.
At present there are around 35,000 orange trees covering about 66 hectares of land in Thakurgaon district and around 41,000 trees on 73 hectares of land in Panchagarh.
During a recent visit to different areas in Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts, this correspondent saw orange trees adorned with yellowish fruits.
U nder the five-year orange development project, Habibun Nabi Prodhan of Haribhasha village in Panchagarh Sadar upazila planted around
400 orange saplings on five bighas ofland in 2008.
"In 2011 I started selling orange in the market Last year I sold the fruit worth Tk 54,000 but this year it is likely to exceed Tk 1-lakh as the yield is good. Traders buy orange from our orchard for Tk 12-15 perpiece," hesaid.
"But we are deprived of proper technical support as the project was closed in 2011. Three trees in my orchard got destroyed due to pest attack last year," he said.
Under five-year Orange Orchard Development Project, the government provided necessary support including quality saplings, trainings and technical help to the farmers till June 2011 and around 74 hectares of land in Thakurgaon and 104 hectares in Panchagarh have been brought under orange cultivation, said former officials ofthe project.
The project introduced Khashia, Nagpuri and Darjeeling varieties of orange in 2006 and around
20,000 farmers were provided training and over 1.51akhs saplings were distributed among the people of the two districts.
But closure of ODP in 2011 affected orange cultivation, said agriculture officials and farmers.
"A new project titled 'Citrus Development Project' started work in May 2013. Under the project new saplings were distributed in a limited scale. But supervision of the old orchards is hampered due to shortage of manpower," said Bhupesh Kumar Mondal, deputy director of Thakurgaon DAE.
The farmers have urged revival of the project to help commercial cultivation of orange in the area.
Our Dinajpur correspondent adds: Many people in Birganj upazila under the district are engaging in commercial farming of orange.
Razibul Azam Chowdhury, a farmer of Moricha village in the upazila, said he planted an
orange plant at his house premises in 1981 and it started yield after 12 years.
"Now I have 20 orange trees that bore around 700 fruits this season. I have sold off the fruits forTk 8400. This year I planted nine more orange plants," he said.
Seeing his success, many others in the upazila started orange farming.
Shafiqul Islam, 40, of Masterpara village has got 130 to 135 fruits from each of his nine orange trees this year.
"I have taken an initiative to produce orange saplings to promote orange cultivation in the upazila," he said.
There is a bright prospect of orange cultivation in the upazila as weather and soil are suitable for it, said Nikhil Chandra Biswas, an agriculture expert now posted in Thakurgaon DAE.
DAE has planned to arrange training for the interested orange farmers, said Dr Abul Kalam Azad, upazila agriculture officer ofBirganj.