He owns no land except his father's homestead, yet Md Aminul Islam, 30, of Jangalbari village in Fulbaria thana of Mymensingh, did not give up. He has become self-reliant by growing aubergines and lemons on land leased from others.

Aminul said his family of six, with three sisters and his parents, struggled to make ends meet. His father was a farmer who supported the family by working on other people's fields. His mother died recently.

He passed the SSC with great difficulty and could not study further, as he had to help his father support the family. The sisters could not be educated. Aminul and his father worked back-breakingly hard to feed the family and to marry off the sisters. With effort they arranged the sisters' marriages, and he has also married.

Aminul told Banglanews: "I leased two acres of land for ten years and started lemon farming. I have spent Tk 2 lakh in all, starting with money borrowed from friends. In the first year I sold aubergines worth Tk 40,000. This year I hope to sell Tk 3 lakh worth of aubergines and Tk 1 lakh worth of lemons. If I can get out of debt, I want to plant lemons on another two acres."

He added that Colombo lemons grown from grafted saplings live for ten to twelve years. They start bearing after the first year and the yield rises every year. As this lemon yields a little more, it brings good profit in a short time.

"We sell each sack of lemons for Tk 1,300 to 1,400. Sometimes we have to take them to market, and sometimes wholesalers come and collect them from the field," Aminul said.

"If I can sell 100 sacks of lemons this year, I will make a profit," he said. "To those like us who have studied a little and are chasing jobs, I say: don't chase jobs, start some work in your own area. It may be a little hard, but you can become self-reliant within a short time."

Source: Banglanews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.