Travel along the Dhaka-Munshiganj link road to the Garkul area of Baktaboli in Narayanganj and you will see more than a hundred farmers sitting by the roadside with bangi melons of various sizes in front of them. Some have also brought different kinds of vegetables, though melons make up most of what is on sale. The melons and vegetables have just been picked from the fields.

The farmers bring them straight from the fields and sit by the road to sell. Passengers travelling in various vehicles get out when they see the melons and start bargaining. If the price is right they buy and continue on their way.

Those involved say farmland in Narayanganj is shrinking day by day, but there is still some farmland in Baktaboli union of Sadar upazila, next to the city, where farmers grow a variety of crops. As part of this, farmers in several areas of Baktaboli union grow melons every year.

Some of these farmers sit by the Dhaka-Munshiganj link road at Garkul to sell their melons. More than a hundred farmers come every day with different kinds of melons, and each sells on average about Tk 4,000–5,000 worth.

A farmer named Mintu said: "For the past four or five years, during the melon season, selling goes on here from morning to evening. This market sits here temporarily. Sales are good every day. Buyers come from everywhere, and many who come on outings also buy here. There is no formalin in our melons. We bring them straight from the fields and sell them here. There are about a hundred growers here."

Another farmer, Hafizul, said: "People from Dhaka travel to Bikrampur along this road. They stop their vehicles on the way and buy from here. I sell Tk 6,000 to 7,000 a day. I probably wouldn't sell this much at the market. Often people pay more when they see fresh produce. No formalin is used on the fruit here. It is brought straight from the fields and sold."

Arifur Rahman Shoibal, who stopped to buy melons, said: "I had gone to a wedding and on the way back I saw melons being sold here. Talking to the sellers, I learnt they bring them straight from the fields, and some are selling vegetables too. If you can get fresh fruit for less money, what more could you want? So I stopped to buy."

A motorcyclist named Saiyed Molla said: "The melons looked very good, so I bought some. The people here bring them straight from the fields, so this is fresh fruit free of formalin." He added that on his way to Tongibari he often buys vegetables or melons here, as he would not get such fresh produce at the market.

Tahmina Akter Rina, additional agriculture extension officer at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Narayanganj Sadar upazila, told Jago News that farmers grow melons on about one hectare here every year, with yields of around 19 to 20 tonnes per hectare. As in every year, the yield has been good this time too.

Liton Debnath, additional deputy director of the DAE in Narayanganj district, told Jago News that melon is a good crop. In the Garkul area of Baktaboli union, yields are around 15 to 20 tonnes per hectare. Farmers there collect seed locally. From next year, all kinds of support will be arranged to increase their yields further, he said.

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