<i>Fortune smiles on baukul growers</i>
Baukul farmers in the district are hoping to earn fairly good bucks due to bumper production of the popular seasonal fruit this year. Baukul is a wonder plum weighing 70 to 150 gm each. Very often 8 to 10 plums make one kilogram. The local plum has a thick green skin and a stone in the middle of it. Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources said, this year the farmers here are getting more yields than in the previous years. They are also getting good prices of their produces. The wonder fruit is also supplied to other districts, including capital city Dhaka, they said. “The bumper production of baukul has brought smile on the faces of farmers,” said Satkhira DAE deputy director Haribula Sarkar. He said that the fruit was cultivated on 300 hectares of land in seven upazilas this season. “The fleshy fruit produced in the district is comparatively large in size and tastes sweet”. Farmer Akhtarul Islam of Helatola village in Kolaroa upazila said he cultivated the fruit on six bighas this season. He hopes to get an yield of 60-65 maunds per bigha. I am getting good amounts of money this year compared to the last year, said a smiling Akhtar. Traders from different parts of the country, including the capital, are buying the fruit produced in my garden, he added. He said he will be able to earn a minimum profit of Tk 2 lakh per bigha excluding production cost. Shahiduzzaman, a wholesale fruit trader at Borobazar in Sadar upazila, said that the demand for baukul in the market is quite high. “I sell about 100 kgs of baukul a day at a rate of Tk 70-80,” he said.
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