A REVIEW ON STRAWBERRY CULTIVATION IN BANGLADESH: CURRENT STATUS, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITY

Gathering information on strawberry cultivation, including production, challenges, and opportunities, is critical for developing this sector. This review paper aims to compile information on strawberry cultivation in Bangladesh. Strawberry farming is expanding due to increased demand of the local market, employment opportunities for young farmers, and export potentiality. In Bangladesh, 286 tons of strawberries are produced during 2019-2020. BARI strawberry-1, Rabi 1, Rabi 2, Rabi 3, and Camarosa strawberry are the preferable species cultivated by the farmers. Mainly the young aged people adopt strawberry farming commercially in Bangladesh. The study findings revealed that strawberry farming is difficult as it requires technical knowledge and other challenges such as lack of heat-tolerance variety, less sweetness in strawberries, etc. Planting time is also a significant factor because fruits of early planted plants contained more total soluble solids (TSS) and ascorbic acid than late-planted plants. Though strawberry production increased, still some problems are confronted by the strawberry growers during cultivation and marketing, including lack of quality sapling, dying of plant, lack of capital and technical knowledge, diseases and weed, birds attacks, poor transportation, no specific strawberry market, transportation cost, etc. which are needed to be addressed for further development of this field. Considering countries limited land, lack of appropriate genotype for its commercialization, and unemployed population; strawberries production could be a sustainable option for the developing village economy, nutrition supply, employment opportunities, and export strawberries for earning foreign currency.