DHAKA: When Dihider Zakir Hossain first planted Saudi date palm offshoots in southern Bangladesh, he was not sure they could survive in its poor, saline soil. But six years later, the trees are bearing fruit — offering new hope for farming in a region increasingly affected by climate change.
Since the 2000s, the coastal regions of Bangladesh have been heavily affected by soil salinity. One of the main reasons is the changing climate that makes sea levels rise and push seawater into the land, contaminating it with salt.
In low-lying Bangladesh, the process is much faster than the global average and in the past few years, many farmers have either lost their land to seawater or are facing difficulties in cultivating it.
To make use of his land in the southwestern district of Bagerhat, Hossain decided to take a risk and introduce a new plant. He had seen local varieties grown there before, but those dates were low-quality and a plantation could not be easily expanded as they did not produce offshoots — small, rooted shoots taken from a date palm to grow new trees.
Hossain bought the first 40 offshoots of his date palms from Mymensingh district in northern Bangladesh — the first place in Bangladesh where Saudi varieties were ever grown.
“I was inspired to try Saudi date farming after watching videos on YouTube. It’s something new in my region,” Hossain told Arab News.
He started with Barhi, Sukkari, and Ajwa trees and planted them with some initial guidance from the Mymensingh farmer who sold their offshoots to him.
“The rest I learned through YouTube and a process of trial and error,” he said.
“Monsoon rain poses a major challenge for cultivating Saudi dates here, as ripe fruit can rot when exposed to rainwater. To protect them, I always cover the mature dates with paper bags imported from Thailand.”
Six years after planting dates, Hossain has 400 trees in his orchard, of which 80 are already producing fruit.
“On average, I harvest over 3,000 kg of dates a year from the 80 fruit-bearing trees,” he said.
“Seeing my success, many farmers from this region and other parts of the country have become interested in date farming. I’ve provided offshoots to around 30 farmers.”
He believes that planting high-quality Saudi dates in southern Bangladesh could be a good alternative for farmers, as they cannot grow regular crops like paddy or lentils.
Local officials also say it could be a viable and commercially feasible option, as farmers can harvest dates from a single tree for several decades.
“Cultivation of regular crops like paddy, wheat, vegetables is very challenging in this southern region of Bangladesh due to high salinity of the soil. The Saudi date varieties are saline tolerant, and date plants grow here easily,” said Waliul Islam, agriculture officer in Bagerhat district.
“It’s a new crop for farmers in this region, which may help in our crop diversification … The initial cost of the offshoots and preparing the land is a bit higher, but that will be returned within two to four years when the trees start producing dates. Moreover, the farmers would then be able to sell the offshoots of their date plants to others, which offers another source of income.”
