The mango production in the Rajshahi region may fall by about fifty per cent this year due to adverse weather conditions, farmers fear.
They say that this year鈥檚 blossoms are already about 40 per cent less than usual due to a prolonged period of fog in the winter while the remaining mango buds are drying up and falling off due to the ongoing heatwave and insect attacks.
According to the regional agricultural office, there are mango orchards on 93,224 hectares of land in the Rajshahi region, comprising Chapainawabganj, Naogaon, Natore and Rajshahi districts, which accounts for half of the country鈥檚 total mango production.
This year, the regional agricultural department has set a target of producing 12,19,910 tonnes of mangoes, although the region produced 12,07,263 tonnes of mangoes last year.
Farmers, however, said that the agricultural department鈥檚 target of producing the seasonal fruit would fall flat this year.
Ahsan Habib, a grower in Chapainawabganj, explained that mango buds appeared in about 80 to 85 per cent of trees every year, of which about 15 to 20 per cent of them dropped naturally due to the heatwave, hailstorms, and other reasons.
鈥楾he situation is totally different this year as about 40 per cent of my mango trees didn鈥檛 even flower due to prolonged periods of fog in the winter while the unusual rain in March damaged around 50 per cent of the remaining blossoms,鈥� said Ahsan.
Shafiqul Islam Sana, another grower at Bagha upazila in Rajshahi, said that his mango orchard on 300 bighas of land in Rajshahi鈥檚 Bagha upazila had seen 50 per cent less flowering this year.
鈥極n top of that, another 30 per cent of mango buds fell off due to a heatwave and drought. Now, I am irrigating the mango orchards more than I did before to save the remaining fruits,鈥� he said.
Rajshahi, a drought-prone high Barind region, has been experiencing a severe heatwave since the beginning of April as the daily maximum temperature in the region is hovering from 40 to 41.5C.
On Tuesday, the daily maximum temperature in Rajshahi was recorded 40.2C at 3:00pm, said Md Gausuzzaman, a senior meteorologist at Rajshahi Meteorological Observatory.
Meanwhile, along with the heatwave and drought, the hopper attack is making the situation worse as the insect is making holes into the marble sized mangoes.
Jahangir Shah, a grower at Manda upazila in Naogaon, said that mango hoppers had destroyed almost all the mangoes in his orchard although he continued to apply pesticides as directed by the local agriculture office.
He said that irrigating and applying pesticides more than he did before to save the remaining fruits were costing him extra money and he would incur huge losses this year as he would not be able to collect the production costs.
Ismail Khan Shamim, general secretary of Shibganj Mango Producer Co-Operative Society in Chapainawabganj, said that the mango production in the district might drop to 40 per cent this year due to the unfavourable weather.
He said that the market of mangoes in the district last year was about 2400 crore taka.
鈥楤ut, we are worried about having a business of 1,000 crore taka this year,鈥� he said.
Shafiqul Islam, chief scientific officer of Rajshahi Fruit Research Centre, said that there were two main reasons for having less mangoes this year.
鈥極ne is that flowers did not appear on most of those trees that had a good yield last year, while the other is that a significant amount of mango buds were destroyed in the Rajshahi region due to the unusual rain on March 21 and 22,鈥� he said.
About the hopper attack, Shafiqul Islam said that the principle of pest control was that all the plants in the orchard should be sprayed together.
鈥楽ince less flowers have appeared this year, the farmers are applying pesticides to the selected trees that have fruits. As a result, the insects are moving to neighbouring trees and returning to the trees with fruit a few days later,鈥� he added.
Mahmudul Faruque, additional director of DAE Rajshahi regional office, however, told 抖阴精品 that there were 70 per cent mango buds still available in the orchards across four districts of Rajshahi region.
He said that they were hopeful of achieving their target of producing 12,19,910 tonnes of mangoes this year from 93,224 hectares of land in the region.
