Orange orchards replace guava in the Barind area

Aminul Islam of Godagari in Rajshahi is cultivating malta on 7.22 hectares of land in Bottoli of Gogram union. He is in partnership with four others. They bought saplings in Narsingdi in 2017 and started cultivating malta on around four hectares of land for the first time. At present, they have some 4,500 malta trees. They are expecting to sell malta at a better price this year. Aminul Islam said, "We used to cultivate guava. Suddenly, I decided to cultivate malta as those plants live longer than guava plants. The guava plants that we used to grow commercially lasted for three years." Meanwhile, malta plants live for 20 years, production costs are lower and they need a lower amount of pesticides as well, he added. "Initially, if you spend Tk60,000 on 0.16 hectares of land, then there is no cost other than maintenance. However, this year we lost 400 trees due to cyclone Amphan, and had to replant those trees," said Aminul Islam. Hundreds of farmers like Aminul are now cultivating ...