Huge fruits, vegetables rot in Madhupur every year
Lack of marketing, processing facilities blamed
Huge harvest ofbanana is being carried on trucks at a market in Madhupur upazila of Tangail district. The upazila produces over 1 lakh tonnes of banana a year but a large portion of it get as damaged due to lack of adequate facilities for marketing and processing. Photo: STAR
Huge quantity of orchard-based agricultural products and different fruits produced in the forest rot every year as there is no agriculture-based industry or processing zone in Madhupur upazila. About 2,500 tonnes of quality seeds of different crops and fruits, honey and rubber are produced here every year commercially by private concerns in competition with Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC). The farmers were introduced with the quality seeds, irrigation, fertiliser, insecticides and modern agricultural technologies after the BADC set up a massive agricultural farm at Kakraid in the upazila in 1980s. The total amount of cultivatable land in the upazila is about 70,000 acres. At present, pineapple is cultivated in 17,000 acres of land, banana in 11,000 acres, jackfruit in 5,000 acres and mango, litchi, olive, papaya and guava in 5,000 acres of land every year, according to sources concerned. Besides, ginger and turmeric are cultivated in 5,000 acres, vegetables in 2,500 acres, rubber in 7,000 acres and cotton, cassava and coffee in 2,000 acres, and crop seeds in 4,000 acres of land. Some uncommon crops including shoti (one kind of crop used to produce baby food) are cultivated in the Madhupur gazari forests. May to September is the peak period to collect fruits in Madhupur. Yakub Ali, chairman of Sholakuri union in the upazila, said different crops including fruits and vegetables worth about Tk 7 crore are being damaged in Madhupur for not having any cold storage in the upazila and also for lack of marketing and processing. Director of Apiculture Development Organisation, a local NGO involved in honey business, Abul Hossain said over 150 tonnes of quality honey is produced commercially in Madhupur every year but the local apiculturists are not getting the fair prices of the product. The profit is going to the middlemen and brokers rather than the farmers due to marketing problem although local growers have got a bumper production of ginger and turmeric this season, he added. Dr Hazrat Ali, upazila agriculture officer in Madhupur, said there is a bright prospect to set up agriculture-based industries in Madhupur due to availability and supply of raw goods in cheaper costs. Expressing the same hope about setting up processing industries, Madhupur Upazila Nirbahi Officer AKM Benzamin Reazee, said, "A proposal was sent to the ministry concerned to set up a BSCIC Industrial Town in Madhupur last year but we are yet to receive any response from the ministry."
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