PANCHAGARH, Nov 11, 2022 (BSS)- Cultivation of orange on commercial basis has

gained popularity among the farmers in the district as they are getting
excellent production in recent years.

With the assistance of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), farmers of
the district have started to cultivate the juicy-fruit after cultivating tea
as its market demand is good, a DAE official said. Now, they are happy to see
hopeful orange production in their small orchards, he added.
 
The DAE has fixed a target to bring more lands under the orange cultivation
while orange is being cultivated around 15 hectares of land here.

Sefali Begum of Bamonpara village under Sadar upazila, said: "I have
cultivated orange on six bighas of land this year. Last year, I sold orange
about Taka 0.1 million and this year I'm expecting to sell orange over Taka
0.2 million."

Habibul Nabi, resident of the same area, said he had collected orange sapling
from the DAE in 2009 and have been selling orange since six years and earn a
good profit. Per kilogram orange is being sold Taka 150 to Taka 200 here, he
added.

Deputy Director of the DAE, Panchagarh Md Rias Uddin said land of the
district are becoming suitable for orange cultivation and the farming has
become popular in the district since its commercial cultivation began under
the five-year term (2006-2011) of Orange Development Project (ODP) of the
DAE.

The DAE is giving all kinds of modern technologies support to the farmers for
boosting orange production in the district, the DD added.

The country is spending huge foreign exchange every year for importing
oranges from India and some other countries. But a large quantity of it can
easily be grown in Panchagarh and its adjacent districts if the government
provides proper assistance.

This would also help to improve the economic condition of the poverty-
stricken people of the country's northern region, the official added.