Bunches of red, brown, black and green grapes hang among the green leaves, as juicy and tasty as they are beautiful. Surprisingly, each grape differs in taste and smell. Saiful Islam Shovon of Shariatpur has surprised people by growing many such varieties on a trial basis. He has 30 local and foreign grape varieties in his collection, eight of which have fruited this season. Encouraged by his success, the young man hopes to grow grapes commercially in future with advice from the agriculture department.

Saiful Islam Shovon (33) is from the Adarsha residential area of Shariatpur municipality. He works as an office assistant-cum-computer operator at the Department of Public Health Engineering. He has been keen on farming since childhood and grows flowers, fruit and vegetables in his yard and on empty land beside the pond. When his office closed during the coronavirus pandemic, he came across grape-growing videos on YouTube.

From then on he wanted to grow many grape varieties, believing grapes could be grown in Shariatpur's soil too. He began collecting saplings from Kurigram, Jamalpur and other parts of the country. Saving his pocket money, after three years of collecting he was able to plant 30 varieties. This year eight of them fruited in his garden, including Baikunur, Ekolo, Dixon, Valok, Loras, Vales, green sweet (mango flavour) and Red Glove. The fruit of every variety is very juicy and tasty.

Besides grapes, the small garden has various flowers and fruits. The fruits include Philippine sugarcane, white jamun, several mango varieties, gumless bael and orange. There are also 15 varieties of bougainvillea, several kinds of kathgolap, rain lilies and other local and foreign flowers.

"When I learned there were more than 30 varieties of grape saplings in the country, I started collecting them, saving my pocket money. Everyone thought grapes from our area would be sour. That idea has been proved wrong. Eight varieties have fruited in my garden, and all are sweet and tasty. Their colours are varied and each tastes different," Shovon said.

"I have been growing them on a trial basis for several years, and this year I managed to fruit eight varieties. I hope to start growing grapes commercially in the near future with the agriculture office's help. I want to spread the 30 varieties I have to people in my own and neighbouring districts. I want every home to have a grape vine in its yard. I want to give these saplings to unemployed young people so they can become self-reliant farm entrepreneurs," he said.

Local resident Nayan Islam said: "Shovon bhai from our area started growing grapes after watching YouTube. His garden has about 30 grape varieties, and eight have fruited this year. They are very tasty. We thought all grapes grown in this country were sour; he has changed that idea. Every grape in his garden is very sweet. If I get advice from him, I will try growing grapes."

Omar Ujjal Bepari said: "Shovon is my friend; we grew up together. He started growing grapes a few years ago and has many varieties. This year eight varieties produced plenty of grapes, all very tasty and sweet. I would like to grow grapes in my yard."

Rafiqul Islam, additional deputy director of the district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said: "We have already heard that a young man named Shovon has grown 30 grape varieties, and that in his view the grapes are very tasty. We will visit his farm soon. If the results are good, we will encourage farmers to grow grapes and make sure they get any training and support they need."

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