Roadside hog plum brightens Jhalakathi farmers’ lives

Planting of hog plum, locally known as amra, along highways and roads in different upazilas of the district has brought solvency to many local farmers.

Usually, roadside lands remain unused or were used for planting timber trees in the past but now the surroundings has changed as most of the roads in the district are lined with hog plum trees, local farmers said. 

By planting 170 hog plum trees along the village road spending only Tk 30,000, a farmer has earned around Tk 11 lakh in the last 12 years and became a model to many local farmers.

Farmer Kamal Hossain Talukder of Putiakhali village in Rajapur upazila has successfully applied the idea of farming hog plum commercially in the area.

Seeing Kamal's success many farmers in the district started planting hog plum trees on roadside lands.

“In the year 2005 I planted 170 hog plum trees along the roadside, which usually remain unused,” Kamal said.

“Within three years of plantation the trees began to flower and I earned Tk 60,000 by selling the fruit that year, which later increased to Tk 70,000 to Tk 1,30,000 every season,” he added.

“I don't need to take my produce to the markets for selling those as buyers purchase the item from my garden and I receive the money at home,” said Sobuj, a farmer from Nalchity upazila.  

“Generally a hog plum tree lives up to 20 to 30 years,” Rajapur Upazila Agriculture Officer Reaz Ullah Bahadur said, adding that it is an easy way to earn a huge profit.

“We are inspiring farmers to use the roadside lands for growing hog plum,” said Deputy Director (DD) Sheikh Abu Bakar of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Jhalakathi. 

The buds appear in the trees in April and May and the fruit is plucked in August and September, added the DD.