Palm oil is cultivated in 42 countries of the world. About 44% of the total palm produced is produced in Malaysia.
According to agronomists, Bangladesh belongs to the tropical climate zone. Which is very suitable for cultivation.
In this post, I will tell you how Bangladesh is ahead of Malaysia in terms of palm oil production and the only palm oil factory in Bangladesh.
Importance of Palm Cultivation - The scientific name of the palm tree is Alessis genesis. In this age of globalization, its cultivation has spread widely in different countries of the world. Palm trees begin to bear fruit within three to four years of planting.
From a stalk in Malaysia where palm fruit is available from 40 to 60 kg per year. From a stalk produced in Bangladesh, there is 70 to 80 kg of fruit per year. Bangladesh is ahead of Malaysia in terms of production. There are about 150 palm orchards in Bangladesh in different parts of the country including Khagrachhari, Manikchhari, Tangail, and Meherpur. At present, the demand of Bangladesh is about 12 lakh metric tons, which is produced in only one percent of the country. For the remaining 90, we have to depend on foreign countries. The country imports palm and oil and spends the same amount of foreign exchange every year. If enough palm is cultivated, then it is possible to save about 12 thousand crore rupees in foreign exchange.
Processing - Palm trees were a thorn in the side of farmers as there was no medium for oil production. At that very moment, some young men set up the only palm oil factory in the country at Meherpur BSIC Industrial Estate. According to the Department of Agriculture, at the end of 2009, an NGO started farming in different areas including the Meherpur district. Although the trees started to bear fruit, the palm farmers got into trouble. The farmers in the area were suffering from extreme depression as there was no way to sell or produce oil even though it was a good crop.
Many cut down palm trees and started cultivating other crops. Suruj Ali of Amjhupi village in Meherpur Sadar Upazila completed his diploma in agriculture from Gazipur Agriculture Institute in 2005. Suruj Ali has been joined by some young people and businessmen with agricultural diplomas from different parts of the country. They are accompanied by a few retired agricultural officers. And they have formed a firm called Botanical Agro Limited. Its head office is at Meherpur College Road.
And now they are showing the light of hope to the palm tree farmers. Expansion of betel cultivation became the biggest challenge as there was no equipment for palm oil production in the country. When the activities of Botanical Ltd. started, the initial work of setting up a palm oil production factory started. It was not possible to bring equipment from abroad at a huge cost. Amjad Hossain, an engineer at Dhaka's Suntech Agency and Services Limited, and Hasan Ali, a broiler expert, supervised the construction of the equipment. They built the palm oil production machine in collaboration with a German engineer.
The installation of factory equipment was completed at Mirpur BSIC Industrial Estate. At the end of the experiment, it is now possible to produce oil.
Here the automatic boiler machine boils the seeds, with a little more wheeler the husk and seeds are easily separated.
The husks and seeds are extracted by pressing on a separate compressor machine.
The plant is capable of producing 1 ton or 1000 kg of palm oil per hour. The palm oil production plant will play an important role in the overall economy of the country including the farmers of the region.
Therefore, the farmers of the country should pay attention to this as they are not dependent on foreign countries at present. Please comment on how you like my post. Thank you