Yellow watermelon helps this farmer mint money

Vadodara: At a time when the farmers are forced to sell their produce at lower prices due to the coronavirus pandemic, a farmer in Chhota Udepur district has been minting money by growing two new breeds of watermelons.
Prakash Rathwa, a watermelon farmer in Segvasimli village in Pavi Jetpur taluka, harvested around 80 tons of these new fruits when the lockdown was implemented. But he has sold around 90% of his produce by the time the extended lockdown is coming to an end and has also tripled his income. What helped Rathwa was also the curiosity amongst buyers about the fruit. One type of fruit is yellow inside instead of red and the other type retains the red colour inside but is yellow outside.
“The yellow pulped watermelon is 16 to 18% sweeter than the watermelons which are currently available in the market and the yellow skinned watermelons are 14 to 15% sweeter,” said Rathwa. He has grown the fruit on eight bighas of his land. As the quality of this fruit is different, Rathwa has been able to sell them at Rs 20 to Rs 30 per kilogram instead of Rs 15 which the other watermelon would fetch him. He had spent Rs 2 lakh during the sowing season, but he has already earned an income of Rs 6 lakh, he claims.
“The fruits had fully grown just when the lockdown had started, but I could manage,” Rathwa said. He received an order of 50 tons from his regular fruit trader from Surat. “I have been selling the remaining produce in the APMC market in Bodeli,” he added. With Ramzaan month around, the demand for Rathwa’s fruit has shot-up. “The skin of these new watermelons are very thin and the pulp is more so it is good value for money,” Rathwa told TOI.
“These are hybrid watermelons and we have been guiding farmers to grow these as their incomes would multiply. Seeing Rathwa, another farmer in Jabugam village has also started its farming,” said Krunal Patel, deputy director of horticulture department in Chhota Udepur. He added that until a decade ago, watermelons grown in the dry riverbed of Orsang River in Chhota Udepur had high demands in as far as Delhi and Mumbai. However, sand mining in the river affected watermelon farming in the district.