Sureshwar Mallik once regularly ate panta bhat, rice soaked overnight in water and salt, because the family had no money, and had to leave school after class nine. He began farming and has not stopped for about 30 years. Today he is among the country's best farmers and has received the Agriculturally Important Person (AIP) honour.

He is well known in Dumuria, Khulna, for vegetable production using modern techniques, growing pesticide-free companion crops on the same land to make the best use of it. His farm provides jobs for others.

Sureshwar lives in the Kanthaltola area of Dumuria with his mother, wife and two sons. After his father, Adhir Mallik, died of cancer, his mother took up farming, and he joined her. In 1984, while in class nine, he sharecropped about one bigha to grow vegetables. He now sharecrops about nine bighas, producing vegetables all year, including red amaranth, aubergine, bitter gourd, beans, pumpkin, sweet potato, turmeric and ginger. He has won three awards: for safe seed production in 2017, safe vegetable production in 2019, and the AIP award in 2024. His farm employs 8 to 10 people, including widows and unemployed young men.

"I have taken a lot of training on modern farming techniques and want to farm even better with them," he said, adding that he is now producing seed as well as crops. Pesticides harm people and all living things, he said; producing food naturally protects life and the environment, and applying training in farming benefits everyone.

Local farmer Enamul Sheikh, who has worked with him for about 10 years, said he learned many modern farming techniques from him. Parimal Goldar said many people come to meet him, which is a matter of pride for the area. Dumuria upazila agriculture officer Insad Ibne Amin called him a progressive, hard-working farmer who has applied training on modern farming technology to his crops with success.

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