Excellent litchi flowering in Rangpur region raises hope

An excellent flowering on litchi trees continues smoothly amid favorable climate conditions creating a hope of bumper production of lichi in Rangpur agriculture region.

An excellent flowering on litchi trees continues smoothly amid favorable climate conditions creating a hope of bumper production of the juicy fruit in  Rangpur agriculture region.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said some 90 percent of litchi trees in the orchards and homesteads on around 2,000 hectares of land in all five districts of the region have already bloomed as the process continues."The superb flowering in litchi trees has created a real hope of bountiful production of the seasonal fruit this season in the region," said Additional Director of the DAE's Rangpur region Agriculturist Md. Tauhidul Ikbal.
After getting repeated bumper production with excellent market prices, farmers are expanding commercial basis litchi farming every year as many of them have changed fortunes through litchi cultivation in the last 13 years across the region.
"Farmers are producing litchi in volume of 16,000 to 18,000 tonnes worth about Taka 150 to 200 crore on an average adopting latest technologies with the DAE assistance every year in the region," he said.
 Farmers said they are busy now with agronomic management in their litchi  rchards to ensure better production of the fruit though the flowering process will continue till the middle of March in the region.
Litchi farmers Armanm Ali, Mohubar Rahman, Asgraful Haque, Amenur Rahman and Ruhul Amin of different villages in Rangpur Sadar upazila expressed satisfaction over excellent flowering on their litchi trees.
Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Md. Mamunur Rashid said marvelous blooming on litchi trees predicts bumper production this time like in the previous seasons.
"Farmers are getting better output with lucrative markets prices from cultivating high yielding, hybrid and local varieties litchi like China-3,
'Bedana', Bombay, 'Muzaffarpuri', 'Madrazi' and 'Kanthali' in their orchards," he said.
Litchi farming on a commercial basis has already become profitable creating a silent economic revolution in the agriculture sector bringing self-reliance to many farmers in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region.
"A brighter prospect is prevailing to further expand litchi cultivation inthe region," Rashid said, and stressed establishing fruit-processing industries to produce export quality products from litchi for exporting abroad to make its farming more profitable.
Talking to BSS, Deputy Director of the DAE for Rangpur Agriculturist Md. Obaidur Rahman mandal expressed his satisfaction over excellent budding on
litchi trees and predicted a bumper production of the seasonal fruit this season.
"Field level agriculture officials of the DAE are providing latest technologies and necessary assisstnce to farmers in taking extensive care of blooming litchi trees and pest management to get bumper production of the fruit," he added.