Monjurul Ahsan, who grows a variety of vegetables in Sharsha upazila of Jashore, has succeeded in squash farming with the help of the agriculture department. By growing squash on one bigha alongside other winter vegetables, he has both succeeded and made a profit.

Monjurul lives in Shikarpur village of Laxmanpur union in the upazila and is a student at Government Birshreshtha Noor Mohammad Degree College. He said he has grown vegetables and fruit such as mango, jujube, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower for several years. After watching videos on YouTube, and on the advice of the Sharsha upazila agriculture department, he collected squash seed from the upazila.

He sowed the seeds at home, as with sweet pumpkin or bottle gourd, and transplanted the seedlings to the field using mulching. Fruit began to appear about a month and a half later. A squash plant looks exactly like a sweet pumpkin plant: from the leaves, shoots and stem there is no way to tell which is which.

"I grew it on about 33 decimals," Monjurul said. "I looked after it on the advice of the agriculture officers. As it was my first crop, it took time to understand the care, and the cost was a little higher. But since a squash sells for Tk 40 to 60 at the market, I made a good profit. Because it earns a lot for little cost, I will grow squash on more land in future."

"Each squash weighs from one and a half to two and a half kilograms," he said. "As squash is a new vegetable in this area, other local growers are coming to learn how to grow it and to see the field. Ordinary farmers here are quite inspired by my squash, and I am delighted to see it."

Local sub-assistant agriculture officer Palash Kishore Ghosh said: "Squash is a foreign vegetable. This is the first time it has been grown in Sharsha's soil. With strong demand in the market and high profit for low cost, it is expected that squash farming will spread widely in this area."

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