Watermelon farming shows hope for Bogura youths

After returning from Singapore about seven years ago, Ruhul Amin, 30, of Palahar village in Shahjahanpur upazila of Bogura got engaged with a small business and poultry farming. But he was happy with what he was earning from these businesses.

A private university student, Saleh Ahemd, 25, of the same area was also worried about his career.

Both of them decided to do something new for changing their future. They embarked on cultivating watermelon of foreign varieties in February this year.

They chose Golden Crown and Black Boss, two Taiwanese watermelon varieties which are yellow and black in colour respectively.

Just two months after sowing the seeds, Ruhul and Saleh have already started harvesting the watermelons.

They have so far spent Tk4.5 lakh to grow watermelons on a five-bigha land. They are now selling watermelons at Tk40 a kg. But the price could have been higher had there no pandemic.

"I expect we can earn around Tk8 lakh from watermelon farming. Our profit could be more if there were no epidemic across the country," said Ruhul Amin.

He said they have to monitor the farm constantly as they are unaware of the problems in cultivating these watermelon varieties.

Saleh Ahmed believes this watermelon farming will help him meet his financial needs.

"I am not sure whether I will get a job after completing engineering. So, this is an alternative career choice for me," said Saleh.

Proper farming may bring more profit from agriculture than from a job, he believes.

"I came to know about the farming information from Youtube," Saleh added while talking to this correspondent.

On average, a watermelon weighs around three kilograms, said Saleh.

"Most watermelons in our farm weigh around two and a half kilograms each," he added.  

Nur E Alam, upazila agriculture officer of Shahjanahpur said Golden Crown and Black Boss are two top-class watermelon varieties.

It takes 80 to 85 days to get the complete harvest, he added.