Bumper production raises hope for farmers

A Jamrul orchard in Jamtali area under Dighinala upazila in Khagrachhari.Photo: STAR

Bumper production of Red Jamrul (Wax Jambu) this year raises hope among the farmers in the hill district of Khagrachhari.
The nice looking and vitamin enriched fruit growing well on hilltop, slopes and valleys has a great prospect in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), said sources in Khagrachhari Agriculture Extension Office, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institutes (BARI) and District Horticulture centre.
Red Jamrul is also known as love apple, java apple, chomphu, bellfruit, water apple, mountain apple, rose apple, makopa, tambis, chambekka.
Jamrul tree grows up to 10 to 12 meter and gets bushy with evergreen leaves. The fruit also varies in colour starting from white to pale green, green, purple, crimson, deep purple and even black, said the sources.
The fruit can grow in abundance everywhere of the tree including trunk and branches. The farmers get a huge profit with every tree yielding thousands of fruits, they said.
Regarding the food value researchers and agriculturists said Jamrul can be compared to watermelon. It quenches thirst and refreshes mind and body. Jamrul is enriched with high level of Vitamin B and meets demand of Vitamin-B2.
Tushar Kanti Dey, a farmer at Dighinala upazila, said he has around 100 trees yielding Jamruls of four colours.
“I have been selling Jamrul at Tk 60 per kg and earned about Tk 10 thousand in two months,” said Tushar, who would be earning more from the sale of Jamrul. He said some 100 farmers collected saplings from him so far to cultivate those in their orchards.
Iftekhar Ahmad, plant genetic resource scientific officer of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institutes (BARI), Khagrachhari, said there are around 100 species of Jamrul trees on their research field premises and each of them are now bearing 2000 to 3000 pieces of fruits.
He said they have distributed several thousands of Jamrul saplings among the farmers during the last 10 years.
District Agriculture Extension (DAE) Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer Pranab Barua said Jamrul cultivation is very easy and simple as the trees are free from dangerous disease or pest.
He said, “If the farmers follow scientific method to grow Jamrul according to advice of scientific officer nothing bad will happen and there is no possibility of incurring loss from jamrul cultivation,” he said.
DAE Officer Abdul Malek said, “Cost of Jamrul cultivation is very little while fruits start growing within four to five years. So, with a little investment farmers can reap benefit within a short time.”
“With a proper care of the trees, farmers can easily get Jamrul production all the year round.” said the DAE officer.
“The most remarkable feature is that the Jamrul plants are both drought and rain tolerant,” said Malek, adding, “The plants, however, cannot grow in stagnant water.”
District Horticulture Officer Omar Faruq said usually the reddest a Jamrul in colour the sweetest it tastes. The red Jamrul also attracts more customers to earn more for the farmers.