Rajshahi Correspondent:

As per natural tradition and timeframe, many of the mango trees have started fruit formation amid suitable climatic conditions in the region, including its vast Barind tract, during the last couple of weeks.

There are a lot of buds in the new mango orchards in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon this year. Mangoes are being produced on around 93 thousand hectares of land in the three districts.

According to the sources of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and growers, the fruit setting is going on smoothly, giving a signal of coming of the most popular juicy fruit in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj districts within the next couple of months.

Umme Salma , DAE Deputy Director said the fruit setting stage is progressing well and many of the mango trees have started wearing eye-catching looks in the orchards, gardens and homestead areas.

Giving a salient feature of the fruit formation DAE Additional Director Dr Azizur Rahman informed more than 50 percent of the buds have turned into pods in the region. In Rajshahi, 65 percent of the mango buds are currently pea-sized, while 35 percent are marble-sized.

He also attributed that the previous year’s less production has a prediction of good yield this year meaning that last year was off year and this year on year for mango production.

In the previous season, buds had come late on the trees due to the prolonged winter but this year the situation is reverse predicting a good yield. Usually, buds appear on most trees in early February,

Disseminating his expertise on the issue Dr Shafiqul Islam, principal scientific officer of Fruit Research Station, said all the happenings are supportive to mango outputs this year.

Shafiqul Islam Sana, 47, a potential mango grower from Bagha, who sold mangoes worth about Tk 1 crore last year, is cultivating mangoes on 300 bighas of land this year as well.

Shafiullah Sultan, Upazila Agriculture Officer at Bagha, said that if at least 50 percent of the pea-sized pods survive, the mangoes will have a chance to grow bigger and be of better quality.

Similar conditions are observed in Charghat upazila, where farmers report only seeing mango pods in between the leaves on their trees.

Biplob, another mango grower of Chara Bottola area of the upazila, said that he sold Tk22 lakh worth of mangoes last year.

He said he sprayed pesticides on the mango trees to protect them from pest attack and have good sprouting.

Al Mamun Hasan, Upazila Agriculture Officer, Charghat, however, said that 50 percent of the buds have turned into pods in the upazila.

In his remarks, he said they are suggesting the farmers for proper nursing of their orchards and gardens at this stage and controlling pests’ attacks, if any, with temperature rise, by mango hoppers now, or sometime later by weevils or other insects for better mango production.

Mango grower Abdur Razzak, is taking a proactive approach. He is busy taking care of them and has done the second round of pesticide spraying on the trees. He said that pods have appeared on 500 out of 900 trees in his orchard.

There was less production of mangoes last year. However, this year’s production is expected to rise.

Also Yadul Islam, who has rented 376 mango trees inside the field of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for three years, said buds in his orchard were good this year, with about 75 percent of the trees having mango buds.

He opined that mangoes survive by facing natural calamities. If the existing buds on the trees survive and the farmers take proper care, the target set for mango production will be met.