Into the kingdom of papayas

Dear readers, a few days back I went to Gazipur Sadar's BK Bari Chhitpara to visit a papaya orchard of a young farmer, Ziaul Haque. It's not just a papaya orchard. A 42-bigha (16 acres) papaya orchard. In 2003, Ziaul Haque started cultivating papaya for the first time on 8-10 bigha of land. Gradually, he extended his cultivation area to 42 bighas. He is an educated young man. At first, he served as a manager at a brick field. He wasn't that comfortable with his job. His soul was always there for the farming. It's true that young farmers brought in the modernisation and agricultural diversity in the sector.

Ziaul's papaya orchard is the biggest in his region. There was a time when people used to grow one or two papaya trees at their home yard. But today, it's being grown commercially all over the country. There was also a time when we didn't consider papaya as a vegetable; we used to eat the ripe ones.

It's been fifteen long years for Ziaul in the papaya field. After completing his BA studies, he worked as a brick field manager, but came back from the fire to the green. The job at the brick field couldn't feed his family properly but his commercial papaya orchard is doing it very well.        

"I was inspired by a friend of mine to cultivate papaya," said Ziaul when I asked him of his interest in papaya in particular. Ziaul inherited lands from his grandfather and found that papaya cultivation is giving him good profit. And, he kept on the extension. He's doing Nami and Igor varieties of papayas.

There are about 12,500 papaya trees.

"How much are you producing?" I asked Ziaul.

"350-400 tonnes every year," he replied.

"And, the cost per year?" I asked again.

"15 to 16 lakh taka (USD 18,990)," Ziaul replied.

I am not exaggerating, the papayas look very fresh. The rows are neat and clean, absolute greenery in order, you might say.

Ziaul is also cultivating cauliflower, chilli and other crops which give him an extra 4 to 5 lakh taka. He sells the small green papayas as vegetables and keeps the ripe ones for a better price.

"With all the costs I put in, I can make 8 to 10 lakh taka profit every year," says Ziaul with a wide smile.    

"If someone properly cultivates papaya on three to four bighas of land, he can take good care of his family with his earnings," confidently says Ziaul. 

Many orchards have faced great harm due to rainfall this season. This orchard is exceptional. Due to his great efforts, no papaya was harmed. Thus, he expects even more profit this year.

Ziaul is using organic fertiliser on his land and he doesn't believe in the tradition that one must stop cultivating the same crop on the same land when season changes. He refutes it by saying, "I will keep on doing papaya". 

Ziaul's dedication and effort astounds me. He spends great time at the orchard with his 15-20 workers. They take good care of the orchard with all their heart and labour.

"Allah has blessed me with more than 2.40 lakh papayas now in the orchard," says a very happy Ziaul.

"Moreover, these papaya trees are like my children," adds the passionate farmer.

Dear readers, I am seeing such educated young people taking up farming with great new ideas and innovations over the recent years. They are becoming successful in cultivating new crops. This entrepreneur says it is very important for the educated people to take up agriculture. The more educated people are there in the sector, the more agriculture sector will develop and sustain. Ziaul Haque is one of the best examples in this respect.