Reza Mahmud :
Bangladesh is a fertile land for mango cultivations. It produces huge quatity of different kinds of delicious and nutritious mangoes every year as the seventh highest producers in the world.
But the potentials of huge export markets are to be exploited. Unskilled and unplanned marketing process contributes to huge waste in the local markets also, experts said.
Sources said, the country produces about 25 lakh tons of mangoes every year and secured 7th place in the world.
Chapainababgonj and Rajshahi district produce most mangoes to meet the demand of the country.
About 25 lakh hector land in Chapainababgonj and about 11 lakh hectors in Rajshahi are used for mango cultivations. Satkhira has also been one of the major mango producing districts, gradually. The species of the mangoes growing in the country are Gopalbhog, Langra, Himsagarh, Khirsapati, Lakshanbhog, Fazli, Surma Fazli,
Rani Pasand, Jamai Pasand, Begum Pasand, Dudhswar, Bombai, Latabombai, Kahitur, Koapahari, Misribhog, Amrapali, Mahananda, Subarnarekha and many others.
Most of those mangoes are also grown in Satkhira district.
Besides, three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracks also have been found potential for mango cultivations.
Meanwhile, some species of mangoes like Haribhanga, grown by Satkhira farmers are exported abroad, creating very good image.
UK, Germany, France, Italy and some other European countries are the destinations of Bangladeshi mangoes.
Experts said there are huge potentials of exporting Bangladeshi mangoes abroad.
Besides the European markets, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Hongkong are also potential destination for our mangoes.
Experts said the mango growers are also facing hardness in local markets for unabated negative propaganda over using chemicals or pesticides.
Thousands of tones of mangoes have been destroyed in recent years for such negative propagandas, they said.
When contacted, Dr. Md. Sorof Uddin, Senior Scientific Officer of Horticulture Research Center of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute told The New Nation, “Unrealistic propaganda, unskilled management and unplanned marketing are the main problem of achieving huge potentials of mangoes in the country.”
He said, “Our land is very fertile for cultivating mangoes. Every stakeholders should be aware, eager and honest to make it huge profitable.”
He said, negative propagandas must be erased to curb farmers and traders undesirable loss.
When contacted Professor Dr. Nazma Shaheen, Food and Nutrition Department of Dhaka University told The New Nation, “Unrealistic propaganda on mangoes is harming the country multilaterally.”
“It created panic among the people who stay away from eating mangoes. As a result the farmers are facing huge loss while the people are being deprived from getting enough nutrition,” she said.
The Professor said, “Calcium curbide is usually used for make the mango and other fruit ripe. It is not so called harmful for human health. When calcium curbide spread on the fruit it creates some gas which is responsible to make those fruits ripe. It has no effect on the inside of those fruits.”
She said people should be aware about the false propagandas.
Md. Khurshidul Zahid, of the same department of DU told The New Nation, “A certain level of chemical should be stipulate for using on fruits so that it would not be harmful and no propaganda can be take place.”
