Abu Bakar Siddique Sumon lives in Baylakhali village of Chandpasha union in Babuganj upazila, Barishal. He spent most of his life earning a living in 22 countries. Back home at last, he has found success by putting to use the papaya-growing training he received abroad.

He has made a mark by growing papaya commercially at home. Last year he sold papaya worth Tk 15 lakh, and this year he may sell Tk 20 lakh worth. His orchard has drawn many in the area to papaya farming, and Sumon has urged unemployed young people to create their own jobs by growing papaya, drawing on his experience.

A visit to Sumon's orchard found a heavy crop. He told Jagonews24 that in 1977 he left school after class nine and took a job with the railway. When his four-year project job ended, he went to Beirut, Lebanon, in 1981. Luck did not favour him, and after travelling through Syria and Palestine he came home 17 months later, jobless, and settled in Dhaka's Fakirapul area. He worked sometimes as a painter and sometimes as a day labourer. In 1986 he saw a newspaper advertisement, gave an interview and got work as a painter in Kuwait. In that trade he went on to travel to 22 countries.

In 2005 he went to South Africa and started a business, which he ran there until 2014. He returned home in 2015 and started a business in Dhaka, but lost everything when his shop was robbed. When his wife fell ill with kidney disease, he finally had to return to Baylakhali village in Babuganj. His wife died in 2021, leaving him completely alone and in financial crisis. He then applied the training in papaya farming he had received in South Africa to fallow land at his home.

Last season he sold about Tk 15 lakh worth of green and ripe papaya. Since the start of this year he has made a profit of Tk 7 lakh selling papaya seedlings, and he hopes to earn at least Tk 20 lakh from green and ripe papaya this time. He has more than 1,000 mature papaya trees of the Shahi, Kashmiri and Top Lady varieties. The seedlings were planted in April and began fruiting in July, and it is now the selling season. He is satisfied with four months' production, and he urged the unemployed not to depend on others but to change their fortunes by planting papaya on fallow land at home.

"I am encouraging unemployed people and students to grow papaya. If a student plants just 25 papaya trees alongside their studies and looks after them, it is possible to earn Tk 1 lakh from those 25 trees," the successful grower said.

Mostafa Kamal, a teacher at Babuganj Degree College, said: "I took improved seedlings from him and succeeded in growing them. Alongside teaching, I now have a new source of income."

Babuganj upazila agriculture officer Mamunur Rahman told Jagonews24: "We have visited his orchard. He is now a successful papaya entrepreneur in the area, and many have been inspired to grow papaya by following him. The agriculture office gives all kinds of help for work like this."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.