Mohiuddin Jewel, Chattogram
Sweeter! When ripe, some are white, some are yellow and some are red. Very tasty to eat! Such is the story of the taste of hilly sweet guava in Kanchannagar area of Chandnaish upazila in Chattogram.
From dawn to dusk on the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar highway, there are at least seven guava markets in Patiya to Chandnaish. If you ask where this orange-green-yellow guava is, anyone will answer, Chandnaish is from Kanchannagar.
Patiya-Chandnaish guava is famous all over the country. Syed Ali, a guava farmer in Chandnaish, told Bangladesh Post that the taste of this guava is so great that it does not match with any other guava in the country.
The largest guava market in South Chattogram is at Roshan Market in Chandnaish. As per the traders, 500 clowns of guava are sold in this market every day.
Guava is taken by traders to different cities of the country including Dhaka, Chattogram City, Cox's Bazar, Pekua, Chakaria, Teknaf, Hathazari, Banshkhali, Lohagara, Noakhali and Cumilla.
About 70% to 80% of the people in the hilly areas of Patiya to Chandnaish including Haidgaon, Kachuai, Kharna, Kanchannagar, Hasimpur and Jamizuri unions have guava orchards. Guava farming is their main source of income.
Ayub Ali Khan (67) is a veteran gardener in Kanchannagar area of Chandnaish. In the 1960s, his father, late Khalilur Rahman, started a guava orchard on only 10 acres of land in the South Srimai area.
Since 1980, he and his brothers have been cultivating guava together. At present, the five brothers have a 40 acres of guava orchard.
Locally, some people call guava ‘gayam’, others ‘guachi’. `Kazi Guava’ is an improved variety of vitamin C rich delicious guava known as the apple of Bangladesh.
The demand for this guava is also high as it is sweet to eat and beautiful to look at, which is being produced in large quantities in the fertile hills of Chandnaish.
According to the farmers, the garden owner who has got the lease of the hill once has been cultivating guava by renewing the lease of the hill every year.
The responsibility of annual rent, cleanliness, maintenance is in the hands of the farmers. So, they are trying to get higher yield of guava and getting the yield as per their expectations every year.
A piece of Chandnaish guava weighs up to 1 kg in maximum weight and 25 grams in minimum. Naturally this guava is very beautiful to look at. About 500 to 700 guavas are obtained from each tree.
One load of guava is sold for one and a half thousand to two thousand takas.
Mohammad Ali, a gardener in Hashimpur, told Bangladesh Post that guava is cultivated on about 1,200 acres of land in the Chandnaish hills, while excluding expenses, the income from the garden is 60 to 70 thousand taka every year.
