BSS, Rajshahi
Strawberry cultivation has been gaining popularity in the northwestern districts since the last couple of years as the fruit has tremendous economic prospect for the grassroots farmers.
Due to its prolong-winter climatic condition, the strawberry experts say, huge enthusiastic growers come here from different parts of the country to collect strawberry saplings every day.
With great export potential, the attractive fruit could open a new horizon for the farmers of the northwestern region to earn more profits from less land area and their interest is gradually increasing day by day, said Professor Dr Monzur Hossain of Botany Department of Rajshahi University, the pioneer of strawberry research and variety innovation in Bangladesh.
“We have sold 80,000 saplings to some 200 farmers produced at my farm against the estimated demand of about two lakh in the last planting season”, he said.
The cultivation process of the cash crop is similar to potato, tomato and brinjal, but its market value is much higher. One kg of locally produced strawberry is being sold at Taka 1,000 to Taka 1,200 in different posh markets in the capital Dhaka at present, experts say.
Sarder Salah Uddin, President of Bangladesh Strawberry Association and Joint Director of Horticulture Improvement Station under BADC said the fruit is enrich with varieties of lifesaving proteins as well as vitamin A, C, and E, folic acid, selenium, calcium, polyfenol, alagic, feralic and kumaric acid and cuertcitin, janthomycin and phytostebol.
Some of these nutrients can prevent cancer and AIDS, he added.
Some 5,000- 6,000 strawberry plants can be planted in one bigha and each plant can produce 250 to 300 grams fruits to provide the farmers maximum profits than any other crop when the country imports 50 tonnes of this fruits annually from different foreign countries, he said.
“A farmer could easily earn Taka 1.5 to Taka two lakh after producing strawberry on one bigha of land in only the three-month farming during the winter season”, Salah Uddin said.
“Not only farming fields, the strawberry fruit could be grown well in rooftop of the house”, he said.
The Plant Breeding and Gene Engineering Laboratory under Botany Department of RU has innovated three varieties of strawberry through applying tissue culture method for the first time in Bangladesh.
Dr Monzur Hossain said these three verities of strawberry RU- 1, RU-2 and RU-3 (Rabi-1,2,3) were evolved through tissue culture method using Semiclonal Variation Technology.
“Of the three verities, the RU-3 is suitable for our local climate and it produces saplings faster than the other two species and found very impressive in colour, size and taste,” he said.
In terms of taste and flavor, the developed varieties are same as those are being imported from abroad by spending huge hard-earned foreign currencies, he said.
“Strawberry usually grows better in the countries where winter prevails most of the time and keeping all these factors in view, we have developed the species that could be grown here and suitable for Bangladesh climate”, Dr Hossain said.
He said the plant starts flowering within one month of plantation and fruits can be collected after four months and onwards and an 8- hour long sunshine a day and irrigation and drainage facilities are prerequisites for better strawberry cultivation.
Experts are of the view that an effective motivational campaign should be launched among the cultivators to boost commercial farming of the soft red-juicy fruit strawberry in the country.
Courtesy of http://nation.ittefaq.com
