Collaboration in Bangladesh aims to boost mango exports

In Bangladesh, the mango is the king of all fruits and the South Asian country’s national tree. And it’s not just the locals who savor its sweet, juicy, enchantingly complex taste.

In 2022, the country exported 791 tons of mangoes — nearly triple the number from the previous year. But although it is the world’s seventh-largest producer of the cherished stone fruit, Bangladesh’s share in the global mango market remains modest, in large part because its farmers aren’t consistently following Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). These safe food practices, prerequisites for exporting mangoes to international markets, ensure that fruits and vegetables are produced, packed, handled, and stored to minimize quarantine risks.

Virginia Tech experts are addressing this challenge head-on, partnering with Bangladeshi fruit exporters to support the wider implantation of these practices and help the country reach its export potential.

“Bangladesh is an epicenter of mango production, with many exciting varieties,” said Muni Muniappan, director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management, also known as the IPM Innovation Lab, part of Virginia Tech’s Center for International Research, Education, and Development. “Pest problems with quarantine importance restrict export of these great varieties. We are working with farmers in Bangladesh by training them in implementing GAP guidelines to satisfy sanitary and phytosanitary standards and export this commodity around the world.”

The initiative, part of the broader Feed the Future Bangladesh Integrated Pest Management Activity, focuses on equipping local farmers and exporters with the tools and knowledge necessary to meet international standards. By fostering partnerships between Bangladeshi agricultural entities and private sector stakeholders, the program emphasizes the implementation of Good Agricultural Practices at all stages of mango cultivation and handling.

Protecting plants and helping farmers

Since 1993, the Center for International Research, Education, and Development has served as the home for the IPM Innovation Lab, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded program that works to protect plants from pests and, ultimately to feed the world’s rapidly growing population. Since its inception, the IPM Innovation Lab has generated more than $2 billion in economic benefits to developing countries — more than 35 times USAID’s initial investment.

Muniappan, a scientist specializing in integrated pest management, tropical entomology, and biological control of insect pests and weeds, has led the IPM Innovation Lab since 2006. His main objective, he said, is to reduce farmers’ reliance on highly toxic chemical pesticides by introducing safe agricultural alternatives.

Virginia Tech’s impact in Bangladesh extends well beyond the mango industry. Across the years, Muniappan and his team have developed and introduced several innovative technologies in the South Asian country, including the production and use of Trichoderma, a beneficial fungus that controls soil-borne fungal pathogens, and the grafting of tomato and eggplant seedlings onto resistant rootstocks to overcome bacterial wilt disease.

In 2014, the USAID mission in Bangladesh expanded the program’s scope to include, for the first time, the development and implementation of integrated pest management practices for mangoes. This expansion led to the creation of the Feed the Future Bangladesh Integrated Pest Management Activity in 2021.

Virginia Tech established an office in the capital, Dhaka and hired a local nine-person team to address recently invaded pests and diseases, provide pesticide safety education, review pesticide and plant quarantine regulations, and build local capacity to address plant threats.

Collaborative innovation in agriculture

Feed the Future Bangladesh Integrated Pest Management Activity has collaborated with two private fruit exporters to support Bangladesh’s implementation of Good Agricultural Practices. The Virginia Tech-led team organized capacity-building trainings on the management of quarantine pests — insects, diseases, or weeds — that already exist in Bangladesh, such as fruit flies, as well as ones in neighboring countries that have not yet reached Bangladesh.

The fruits of this labor have already begun to show results, with several Bangladeshi mango exporters, including M/S Sonargoan International, achieving GAP certification, a critical step toward expanding their international footprint. These achievements underscore a broader commitment to elevating the standard of Bangladeshi agriculture and securing a more prosperous future for its farmers.

“At the heart of this success story is the impact of knowledge transfer and international collaboration,” said Guru Ghosh, vice president for outreach and international affairs. “By bridging Bangladeshi expertise with the research acumen of Dr. Muni Muniappan and the IPM Innovation Lab, the initiative is setting new benchmarks for agricultural excellence and export competitiveness. It’s an example of how Virginia Tech is able to act as a force for positive change around the world by applying local solutions on a global scale and global solutions on a local scale.”