Mango trees been severely damaged in Naogaon due to the impact of cyclone Amphan. Mango farmers say about 50 percent fruits of the orchards have fallen due to the cyclone.
According to the Naogaon Agriculture Extension Department, mango has been cultivated in 21,700 hectares of land in the district this year. There are about 7,000 orchards of 4,800 mango farmers.
The target for mango production per hectare is 15 metric tons. This time the target of mango production was set at 3 lakh 25 thousand 500 metric tons. Cyclone Amphan has dropped a maximum of 50 percent, i.e. 1 lakh 85 thousand mangoes. If the price of mango is 40 taka per kg in the full season, the amount is around 100 crore taka.
Out of 11 upazilas of the district, more than 60 percent mango is produced in Porsha and Sapahar upazilas. Saifur Rahman, a mango farmer from Islampur village in Sapahar upazila, said he has four gardens on 40 bighas of land. Half of the three thousand trees in the garden have fallen due to the storm. Several trees have fallen in the storm. Fallen mangoes will not be sold for more than 3-4 taka per kg.
Sapahar Upazila Plant Protection Officer Ataur Rahman said mango has been cultivated in 8,350 hectares of land in Sapahar this time. This time there were fewer mangoes in the gardens. On top of that, the storm caused a lot of damage.
Sirajul Islam, deputy director of the district agricultural extension department, said the cyclone had caused a lot of damage to mango farmers. Work is underway to calculate the amount of damage.
