Commercial farming of SA date starts in Narsingdi

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BSS, Narsingdi :
Considering economic prospect of Saudi Arabian (SA) date, one unemployed educated youth of the district has started farming of the fruit in and around his homestead on a commercial basis.
Local sources said one Tajul Islam of Charkasim Nagar village under Belabo upazila planted the date saplings in his homestead garden in 2014. Tajul collected date saplings and seeds while working in Saudi Arabia.
At the beginning, he planted three saplings in the garden. The date saplings grew well. Two of the date trees have started yielding fruits from August this year. Tajul already harvested 20 kilograms (kgs) of date and is expecting more 50 kgs in the current season.
Tajul in the meantime grew more date palm saplings from his collected seeds and changed his lot by selling those at a rate ranging between Taka 1000 and Taka 1500 each.
He also planted over 250 saplings in his homestead garden and other lands.
He expressed his satisfaction over the farming of date plam saplings. Deputy director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Narsingdi Latafat Hossain told BSS that farming of Saudi Arabian date plam trees in Bangladesh has a great economic prospect.
He said the fruit has a big demand in the local markets. The fruit contains huge nutrition, vitamin and mineral.
He said the DAE is ready to provide necessary support in this regard.
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