Palm cultivation in fallow high lands

Osman Gani in his palm garden, snapped on Sunday. PHOTO: STAR

This has been proved by Osman Gani, a retired government official.

He has successfully raised two palm gardens in Atharadana village in Diger union and Bogra Amtali village in Deolabari union in Ghatail upazila in Tangail district, covering about 20 acres of high land.

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Osman hails from Pakutia Ramjibanpur village in Ghatail upazila.

Some of the trees started bearing palm this year. He extracted oil from those through an oxen-driven indigenous method.

He hopes to begin commercial extraction of oil from palm after five years.

Bangladesh's climate and soil are suitable for palm cultivation as in Malaysia, he says.

He was overwhelmed when he invited to his gardens some young men who worked in Malaysian palm gardens. At home on holiday, they visited his garden recently and were surprised. They told him that his gardens were like those in Malaysia and the palm grown were of similar quality.

But agriculture officials and experts in Ghatail were awed when he told them about his success and sought advice.

They said they never thought of the possibility. They however admitted that Bangladesh could grow palm like Malaysia as both are tropical countries.

Years back, some young men from Osman's area were working in Malysian palm gardens. Osman Gani requested them to give him some palm seeds.

He sowed these in a high land in his village. When the plants grew, he transplanted those in his high lands in Atharadana and Bogra Amtali villages. This was in the year 1999.

After five years' nursing, Osman has now over 50 tress.

Fallow high lands in Modhupur, Mirzapur and Ghatail could be suitable for palm cultivation, he told this correspondent during a recent visit to his gardens.

Malaysia had also started palm cultivation experimentally in 1911 with seeds collected from Java in Indonesia.

Now it is the number one palm oil exporter in the world. Having the same climate, Bangladesh can also cultivate palm commercially, Osman said.

Palm was first grown in Bogor Botanical Garden of Java in 1848 on experimental basis.

Osman lamented that neither the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) nor any research institute has done any experiment on this highly productive crop.

A palm tree bears bunches of palm five years after sowing. Palm can be harvested twice a year. Four to five kilograms of palm can be plucked from one tree after every six months, which produce two to 2.5 kilograms of oil, Osman says. The yield increases with the growth of tree. A tree gives fruit for 40 to 50 years.

Osman said he has so far spent around Tk 40,000 in raising and maintaining the gardens. He is now multiplying the seeds for expansion of the garden. He hopes to go for commercial harvest after five to six years. But he will then face a major problem in extracting oil from palm seeds because the machine is costly and has to be imported, he said.

Osman said palm cultivation can be highly productive, which will meet the country's demand for edible oil. It can be a profitable business because a garden lasts 40 to 50 years. The government should look into the possibility.