Neglected Guava
Photo: Shawkat Jamil
Farmers use Kuriana canal in Pirojpur to get to floating markets with their boats loaded with guava. During the monsoon boats are often used to harvest the fruit as well.
Kuriana is one of the 49 villages in Barisal, Pirojpur, and Jhalakathi that come up with 80 percent of Bangladesh's guava production. Hundreds of people of those villages have seen financial independence cultivating guava on 30,000 acres of land.
The farmers identified a dearth of proper preservation techniques, and marketing and communication tools as reasons for getting less-than-expected price for their produce. They get between Tk 120 and Tk 180 for a maund of guava, sometimes they even get as less as Tk 40 to Tk50.
Setting up of cold storages, and easy availability of short-term loans could boost production, and make way for jam, jelly and juice industries, the farmers said.
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