Commercial cultivation of papaya has become very popular among farmers in Rangamati due to its handsome market price and high yielding varieties that rarely let the growers down.
Once cultivated in the courtyards of Rangamati to mostly meet family demand, farmers are now inclined to widely cultivate papaya by investing capital on their land.
Shyamol Tanchangya from Ramtia area of Rangamati’s Rajasthali is one of the farmers for whom papaya farming has become very lucrative.
Shyamol says he had invested Tk1.1 lakh on around 1.5 acres of land for papaya cultivation. “In the past seven months, I made a profit of Tk2.5 lakh from papaya cultivation. I am looking forward to cultivating papaya on 10 acres of land next, which could easily earn me Tk6 lakh to Tk7 lakh.
"Each maund of papaya goes for Tk900 to Tk1,000 in the market. Spiders and fungi are its only nemesis. I believe one can turn his/her fortune with papaya cultivation,” added Shyamol.
He believes that with adequate assistance provided by the government, a lot of young men and women struggling to find jobs can become self-sufficient through papaya cultivation.
Bhagyadhan Tanchangya, a resident of Shyamol's village, said Shaymol was an educated young man. His success had inspired many of his peers to cultivate papaya.
Traders from Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Barisal were coming to Rajasthali to buy good quality papaya from here, added Bhagyadhan.
Hasibur Rahman, an agriculture officer in Rajasthali upazila said: “Papaya is very nutritious. The agriculture office is providing full assistance to farmers for farming the fruit. Farmers are inspired in papaya cultivation due to its good yield and decent price.”