Local dates can play a vital role to meet national demand of the fruit partially. It may also help save huge amount of money spent for importing the foreign dates every year.
Now, about 950 to 1,000 tons of local date palm is produced in six upazilas of Jhenaidah. The massive amount of dates is produced without any maintenance.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Jhenaidah asked people to take care of the date palm trees for better production.
Farmer Manir Uddin and farmer Abdullah Sheikh of Ganna area in Jhenaidah Sadar Upazila said local dates are the blessings of the nature as they usually do not take care of it. However, the farmers take care of the plants to extract date palm juice in the winter. The farmers also said the ripen dates can help meet the demand of the children as well as others.
According to a source of office of the deputy director of the department of agricultural extension (DAE) in Khamarbari of Jhenaidah said the number of date palm trees is 138,835 in the district.
Sources said about 35 to 40 percent of the trees offer the fruit when the winter is over. Around 20 kilograms of date palm is grown in one tree during the season. The fruits are grown naturally.
Jhenaidah Upazila Agricultural Officer (UAO) in Jhenaidah Sadar, Nur E Nabi, said the production of local date will be increased significantly if the owners of the trees take intensive care of date palm trees like other plants. The local date palm contains huge amount of Vitamin B6 which enriches the brain activities. Four pieces of date palm contain 90-gram calorie, one-gram protein, 13 milligram calcium, 2.8 milligram fiber and some other nutrients. Naturally fibred date palm helps prevent cancer in human body and removes frequent appetite.
The people of different areas of the country sell the local date palm at a reasonable price in the markets. It has a good demand among the people for its taste and flavour. Organic manure and some other maintenance might develop the health of the plants for more date palm juice and fruits every year, UAO Nur E Nabi said.
