Anwar Hossain, a farmer at Napiderchar in Kachhapia union of Ramu upazila, Cox's Bazar, is drawing attention with four colourful watermelon varieties grown on mulch in the monsoon. He grew 20 decimals last year and 40 this year, spending about Tk 70,000, and hopes to sell Tk 2.5 lakh worth. Dinajpur TV reported the story.
He planted about 3,000 seedlings and 7,000 to 8,000 melons have set. Of the four varieties, Surya Dim is yellow outside and red inside, Rabi green outside and yellow inside, King Sugar black outside and red inside, and Big Bite green outside and red inside.
Traders from Chattogram and Cox's Bazar keep calling him; he says he will tell them when the fruit is ready. His main obstacle is the fertiliser shortage: the field needed 400 to 500 kg, but he got only 100 kg, so he cannot look after the crop properly.
Besides watermelon, Anwar is farming 80 decimals in all this season, with yardlong beans, sweet pumpkin, bitter gourd and bottle gourd. Other farmers nearby are preparing to grow watermelon on mulch next season after seeing his field.
According to the agriculture department, early rabi and off-season watermelon is catching on in Ramu. The upazila grew 10 hectares last season, and the area has grown with new varieties; King Super, Glory, Mintu Super, Blackberry, Black Swift and Sugar Baby are now grown.
Photo: Zeynel Cebeci / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); the picture above is illustrative
Source: Dinajpur TV
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