The foreign fruit passion fruit is known in Bangladesh as “Anarkali” or “Tang fruit.” A farmer of Kamalganj in Moulvibazar, Saleh Ahmed, has achieved remarkable success in cultivating it. Cultivation of the fruit began in the district’s hilly areas a few years ago, but he is the first to start commercial cultivation of Anarkali on the plains. This agricultural entrepreneur is a resident of West Baghmara village in Ward 6 of Ward 5 Kamalganj union in Kamalganj upazila.
The mildly sweet-and-sour Anarkali fruit is growing more popular by the day. Each Anarkali sells wholesale for Tk 10 to Tk 15. It can be grown entirely by organic methods without chemical fertilizer or pesticide, which also keeps production costs low and poses no health risk. The cultivation of this fruit, unique in taste and smell, has opened new possibilities for fruit production in the district.
The entrepreneur, Saleh Ahmed, said that alongside paddy farming he had long built up a small orchard of local and foreign fruits including lemon and latkan on his own land. In 2022 he began cultivating Anarkali by experimentally planting three saplings on four decimals of his land. In 2024 the fruit from those three trees met his family’s needs and was sold for Tk 10,000. Encouraged after selling the Anarkali fruit, he planted many more saplings that year and achieved success in commercial cultivation of the fruit. With the fruit now on the trees in his orchard, Saleh Ahmed expects to sell more than Tk 100,000 worth of fruit this season.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report