Fruit orchard increases, cropland decreases in Rajshahi

RAJSHAHI, Nov 22: The number of fruit orchards in the district is increasing day by day as the farmers here have become more interested in cultivation of different fruits, incurring a huge loss in paddy and other crop cultivation due to high cost of inputs.
Besides, the farmers are fetching more profit from fruit cultivation than that of crop cultivation. As a result, the croplands have been reduced during the last couple of years.
Nowadays, farmers are showing interest in commercial cultivation of different fruits getting quick profit, according to field sources.
Many farmers have faced loss in paddy cultivation for its high production cost during the last few years, the sources said, adding, besides, the cost of paddy cultivation is increasing day by day.
For this reason, many farmers have been compelled to change their cultivation of crop.
They are interested in the cultivation of mango, guava, litchi and plums in the last couple of years, farmers informed.
According to the sources at Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Rajshahi, the farmers have become more interested in cultivation of different fruits including mango, guava, litchi and plums in the last couple of years. Among the upazilas, more cultivation of the fruits has been recorded at Bagha, Charghat and Godagari upazilas of the district, the DAE sources said.
The sources further informed, the total arable land in 2010 was 2 lakh 2 thousand and 803 hectares, and in 2014, it decreased to 1 lakh 80 thousand and 911 ha. Of the lands, mango orchards covered 16,583 hectares. In 2012-'13, the mango orchards comprised 14,005 hectares, in 2013-'14 16,519 hectares and in 2014-'15 16,583 hectares.
Besides, the guava orchards comprised 884 ha in 2012-'13, 1,239 hectares in 2013-'14. Alongside, the plum and banana cultivations have also increased.
On the other hand, the farmers have reduced crop cultivation as the water level has fallen drastically, and the irrigation cost has increased, the sources informed.
In this connection, Rajshahi DAE Officer Deb Dulal Dali said the farmers are showing interest in fruit orchard for the low cost of its cultivation.
Besides, they can fetch profit in fruit cultivation. For this reason, many farmers have started fruit cultivation commercially across the nine upazilas of the district.
Though hybrid crops and fruits are being produced in a larger scale in a little land, it is actually reducing the total croplands since the traditional mode of cultivation cannot yield much output.  
If this situation continues, the region's food security will be under threat, the officer added.