Floods leave Tangail lemon growers in utter despair
Lemon growers in Tangail have incurred huge losses after their lemon orchards were hit hard by the recent devastating and prolonged floods as well as heavy rains.
Lemon has been cultivated commercially in six out of total 12 upazilas in the district. The upazilas are Delduar, Nagarpur, Mirzapur, Sakhipur, Ghatail and Madhupur.
Of the areas, Delduar, Mirzapur and Madhupur are major lemon producing upazilas in the district.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Tangail, lemon was cultivated on 2157 hectares of land this year with a target to produce 43000 tonnes of lemon.
Lemon orchards on 380 hectares of land in the district were fully damaged by the three phases of floods in July and August.
During a recent visit, it was seen that the lemon orchards were damaged mostly in Sadar, Laohati and Fazilhati unions of Delduar upazila and Mokna, Pakutia and Mamudnagar in Nagarpur upazila and Banail, Anatara, Warshi and Jamurki unions in Mirzapur upazila.
Around 500 lemon growers in the areas incurred losses.
Several affected lemon growers said they have already lost their capital. So, they sought government support in this regard.
Several lemon growers including Humayun Kabir, Refaz Talukder of Chhoanipara, Md Kodom Ali of Bhabanipur of Laohati union in Delduar upazila, Nazim Uddin, Alam Miah and Yusuf Miah of Mokna union in Nagarpur upazila said they had raised lemon orchards taking lease of land from others.
When the lemon plants started dying days before harvest due to stagnant floodwater, they were compelled to harvest and sold out the lemon at throwaway prices, said the growers.
Humayun Kabir of Chhoanipara of Delduar said previously he had worked at others' lemon orchard as day labourer. Later, he himself raised an orchard after taking lease of 1.2 acres of land.
"But my lemon orchard was fully damaged by the recent floods leaving me in utter despair," he said.
Several lemon wholesalers including Minhaz Miah of Putiajani market, Rashedul Alam of Laohati and Ainal Haque of Fazilhati market said they have bought lemon from the local growers at lower prices after floodwater entered the orchards.
After many orchards were damaged by flooding, now the prices of lemon have shoot up due to short supply.
"Now we buy a sack of lemon at Tk 5000 while it was only Tk 2000 before the floods," said wholesaler Minhaz Miah.
Agriculturist Ahsanul Bashar, deputy director of DAE in Tangail, said they have no allocation for the lemon growers.
However, they have sent a proposal to the higher authorities in this regard, he added.
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