As the winter season says goodbye, tens of thousands mango trees have started flowering in Rajshahi region, famous for the production of the seasonal delicious mango fruit nationwide.
Huge blooming of mango trees at this stage predicts an excellent production of the most popular fruit in the region this season, if the climatic conditions remain favourable till its harvesting period.
Principal Scientific Officer of Fruit Research Station (FRS) Dr Shafiqul Islam said the prevailing climate condition is suitable to blossom in mango trees.
He said hundreds of thousands of mango trees have already bloomed and worn eye-catching looks with huge flowers. Flowering in mango trees began in the mid-January and continues till mid-March, he added.
Every year new mango orchards, especially of Amrapali, BARI mango-3 and 4 varieties, are rapidly increasing in the districts, said agriculturists.
Naogaon was long known for paddy cultivation, but last year it became the highest mango-producing district, surpassing the mango capital of Chapainawabganj.
Dr Islam said Chapainawabganj still has the highest amount of land covered by mango orchards, but Naogaon saw a one-and-a-half-times increase in its mango farm acreage annually over the last 10 years, according to Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) data.
The area covered by mango orchards in Naogaon increased by 14,925 hectares in the period while the increase was 9,520 hectares in Chapainawabganj.
Mango farming is not only increasing, but it is changing as well. Instead of creating mango orchards for a hundred years or more, farmers are targeting only 10 years.
Golam Mourtoza, 55, a mango trader of Baneswar village under Puthiya upazila, said that the farmers are seen very busy nursing mango trees at present to protect the flower from dropping.
Usually, he added, blooming of mango in is seen to occur during the last week of January and continues till middle of March.
Motaleb Hossain, a mango grower of Charghat upazila, said he has over 200 mango trees in his orchard. He has cultivated a large variety of mangoes this season. He expects a handsome profit for the early blooming of mango trees this year.
Normally 10 mango trees are planted in one bigha of land, but in the new farming method, farmers can plant up to 200 trees in the same space, said Md Nuruzzaman, a mango grower of Porsha upazila of Naogaon.
"These trees will bear fruit for 10 years or less, and then we have to uproot them and replant."
The growth of mango orchards is the highest in the two Naogaon upazilas--Porsha and Sapahar. They have 72 percent of the orchards of the district, says the DAE.
Meanwhile, around 65 to 70 percent mango trees have already sprouted in Chapainawabganj while 70 to 75 percent in Rajshahi as the remaining mango trees are expected to sprout by mid-March in some cases, he continued.
On behalf of the FRS, many of the grassroots mango farmers were imparted training to yield maximum output side by side with safe production after the best uses of modern technologies, Dr Shafiqul Islam added.
Additional Director of the DAE Shamsul Wadud said the farmers have been caring and taking measures for making mango farming successful everywhere.
The farmers have been keeping contacts with the agriculture officers at the field levels to control the possible attacks by hoppers and some other pest attacks on the mango flowers.
There are around 35 lakh mango trees of different ages on some 23 thousand hectares of land in the region, said the DAE officials concerned.
The number of growing mango trees has been increasing in the region for the last couple of years. Mango, the leading seasonal cash crop of the northwestern region, vitalizes the overall economy of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts.
After witnessing the present climate condition, both the growers and the officials are very much optimistic about high yield of the seasonal fruit.
Abul Hossain, a farmer of Mazar Diar village in Paba upazila, said buds started appearing in mango trees this season before the end of winter.