Univ student’s success in squash farming
After failing to find a job due to coronavirus outbreak, Shakil Ahmed, a B.Sc honours student of agriculture department at Noakhali Science and Technology University, did not sit idle and started farming and found success in it.
Shakil returned to his village at Gomjani in Tangail's Delduar upazila after the university was declared closed in March last year due to coronavirus situation. His honours results were published in June.
"Failing to find a job due to the pandemic, I decided to cultivate squash on my father's land," Shakil said.
"At the university, I did some research on vegetable cultivation. So, I decided to cultivate new vegetable squash on 40 decimals of land of my father," Shakil said.
He spent Tk 32,000 for the cultivation and sold squash worth Tk 92,000 at local markets--Tk 12 per kilogram at the beginning of the season and Tk 8 at the end.
"In order to reduce costs, I was thinking of cultivating with advance technology called 'mulching film' so that moisture remains on the soil and no extra irrigation and labour is required for taking care of the land," Shakil said.
However, cultivation with this method (mulching paper) is completely new in the area.
After Shakil applied the method on his squash field, local farmers started criticising him seeing whole land being covered with polythene. Shakil, however, did not pay any heed to those negative criticisms.
"They have seen the benefits of mulching paper after my success. Now they themselves have become interested in it," Shakil said.
Jahidur Rahman Jahid of the same village was also sitting idle after getting unemployed after returning to the village from Malaysia due to corona situation. After getting encouragement from Shakil, he also cultivated squash on his 12 decimals of land and got success.
"Shakil also advised me to cultivate wheat on our 60 decimals of land where Boro paddy was cultivated previously," Jahid said adding that "Shakil also showed me how I can get more profit from the wheat cultivation than Boro paddy."
Not only Jahid but also several other farmers in the village including Selim Miah, Abdul Latif, Masud Miah and Jiar Ali have also cultivated wheat and maize on their lands this year in place of Boro paddy following advice of Shakil.
"In addition to vegetable cultivation, farmers of my village cultivate only paddy, although paddy cultivation is now not so profitable," Shakil said.
"Then I arranged yard meeting and advised them to cultivate three crops on their lands. Now, under my advice and supervision, some local farmers are cultivating maize, wheat, potato and mustard on the lands," he said.
"Through the yard meeting, Shakil has also assisted us in the implementation of LLP (Line, Logo, Perching) project of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE)," said Abdul Hannan, sub-assistant agriculture officer in Atia union.
Shakil said although he has already cultivated cucumber, watermelon and muskmelon on the land after harvesting squash, he is actually waiting to take admission in soil science department of Bangladesh Agriculture University.
"After completion of my study, I would like to make my career in agriculture and contribute to the development of this sector," he added.
Appreciating Shakil's initiatives, Shoyeb Ahmed, upazila agriculture officer, said the agriculture sector in the country will see more development if educated youths like Shakil come forward and get involved in the sector.
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