10-12 lakh from one malta season, and 15-20 lakh more from saplings
Nine bighas leased in Charghat in 2019, now 16: malta nets 10-12 lakh taka in a season and saplings bring 15-20 lakh more a year, all sold at the garden at 200 taka a kg.
After finishing his degree at Rajshahi College, this 34-year-old leased 9 bighas beside his house at Fatepur village in Shalua union, Charghat, in 2019, and later added 7 more, bringing the orchard to 16 bighas. The plot already carried a guava orchard, so he planted malta saplings in among the guava trees, took a few years of guava income and then cut the guava out. The malta has yielded well for four years and best in the last three, 1 to 1.5 maund from a single tree, needing only a spray at flowering, another at fruit-set, and loosened soil with organic and some chemical fertiliser. He never goes to a market: from November to January, and heaviest on Fridays and Saturdays, visitors come from across the country to see the orchard, he cuts fruit for them to taste, and many leave having bought malta at 200 taka a kilo and grafted saplings as well. A season of malta alone nets 10 to 12 lakh taka after costs, and selling malta and other fruit saplings year-round brings another 15 to 20 lakh.
Lessons
- 1.Interplanting the new orchard inside an existing guava plantation meant the land kept earning through the years the malta trees were too young to fruit
- 2.Turning the orchard into a place people travel to see replaced the market entirely: visitors pay a retail price at the gate and many buy saplings on the way out, which earns more than the fruit
Published with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.
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