Bumper yield may not always be a boon

Nilphamari saw a bumper yield of jackfruit this season, only to frustrate the farmers due to low price in the district. Photo: Star

Good yield of jackfruit fails to make farmers in the district happy as they have to sell the item at throwaway prices this season.
This year farmers in the district got 7500 tonnes of jackfruit from 963 hectares of land while it was 6260 tonnes last year, said sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).
Timely rainfall contributed to the bumper yield, they said.
As the jackfruit yield is very high, the supply to market in greater than demand and it has led to price fall of the popular fruit, said Hamidul Huq, a jackfruit wholesaler of Sakamacha Bazar in Nilphamari.
“Other jackfruit producing areas of the country also saw good yield this season and so, traders from other districts are not interested to buy the fruit from here,” he added.
Atiqur Rahman, a jackfruit farmer of Angarpara village in Sadar upazila, said, "I usually get 1000-1200 jackfruits in a year from my orchard of 20 jackfruit trees and earn Tk 12,000-14,000 from there as average selling price stands at Tk 12 per piece."
"This year I got around 1500 jackfruits but a few traders visiting my orchard offered only Tk 4-5 per piece,” he added.
Visiting different markets including Bhobaniganj, Tenganmari, Mirganj, Barovita, it was found that farmers brought good amounts of ripe jackfruits but there were a small number of customers who offered low prices for the fruit.
"I brought ten jackfruits to Barovita market and could sell six pieces only. I will have four other jackfruits fed by my cow as there is no way to preserve the perishable item,” said farmer Tayeb Ali of Monthona village in Kishoreganj upazila.
SM Sirajul Islam, deputy director of DAE in the district, said, "Jackfruit cultivation needs only putting required amount of fertiliser for good yield. Farmers are not getting good prices as production is higher than demand this year. To save the farmers from incurring losses, jackfruit juice factory can be established.”