Young entrepreneur Abdul Alim Sabuj Sarkar has succeeded in growing the year-round Karishma watermelon variety for the first time in Sarishabari, Jamalpur. He is delighted with the bumper yield from growing the watermelon using the mulching method, the report says. The agriculture department says more and more unemployed young people are showing interest in watermelon, and it is giving them full support.

Sabuj is the son of Azizar Sarkar of Satpoa village in Satpoa union of the upazila. He is doing a master's in political science at Ananda Mohan College in Mymensingh, and wants to make his name as a successful entrepreneur before he finishes his studies.

He says that from childhood he dreamed of doing something and of never being unemployed. He then began growing the Thai Karishma hybrid watermelon on 10 decimals of his father's land, using the machang (trellis) method, as the body of the report describes it. With seedlings planted one to one and a half feet apart, each plant now carries three to four fruits weighing two and a half to three kg. Having spent only Tk 35,000, he hopes to earn Tk 2 lakh to Tk 2.5 lakh.

He had earlier made a profit from growing different vegetables with the help of the agriculture office, and on its advice started this hybrid watermelon for the first time in the hope of a bigger profit. He is now well known in the area, and his success has raised hopes among local people.

Locals say they had never seen watermelon grown like this before and were amazed. The yield has also been good. In future they will learn from Sabuj how to grow watermelon on a small plot.

News of the upazila's first watermelon success has brought many visitors, and some buy fresh watermelons straight from the field. Mithun, Sajib, Shahin and others said nobody in their upazila grows watermelon, so they came to see Sabuj's new method. Since it gives a high yield on little land at low cost, they are thinking of growing it themselves.

Shariful Islam, sub-assistant agriculture officer in Sarishabari, said: "The agriculture department has kept in constant touch with him from planting until now. If this cultivation can be expanded, it will ease unemployment in the upazila."

Sarishabari upazila agriculture officer Anup Singha told Jago News by phone: "This hybrid watermelon is very profitable on a small plot, and farmers are turning to it day by day. One bigha can take 1,000 to 1,200 seedlings, and the fruit is ready to sell within 60 to 65 days of planting. Farmers are being helped in various ways."

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