Rain-ridden farmers selling watermelon at throwaway prices

SAHIWAL: The ongoing torrential rains and last week’s hailstorms damaged watermelon crop, causing heavy losses to the local farmers, forcing them to immediately sell their crops at throwaway prices.

The local fruit markets are not accepting the watermelon as the last two days’ rain further affected the crop. On Wednesday night again, the watermelon farmers of Pakpattan, Sahiwal and Okara took the brunt of more heavy rain and thunderstorm.

Furthermore, the low temperature in April and cloudy weather conditions are not suitable for watermelon as they stunt its growth. Such weather conditions are also not suitable for sale and purchase of watermelon, the fruit of hot summers along with melon.

After the recent rains, the watermelon farmers decided to take their produce to the Islamabad market for better rates instead of waiting for another spell of rain or hailstorm and complete destruction of their crop.

Zohaib Abbas, a resident of Chak 91/6-R, tehsil Sahiwal, is a young farmer who opted for six-month-long watermelon crop instead of traditional crops of maiz, rice and wheat, for his eight acres agricultural piece of land. He followed the foresight of other fellow farmers who, in view of the conditions in 2022, predicted that watermelon would give more profit than traditional crops in 2023.

Profit margins for Sahiwal farmers have halved due to wet weather conditions

“A 300 maund (12,000kg) watermelon truck was sold in the local market between Rs700,000 to Rs800,000 giving straight away profit margin from Rs300,000 to Rs400,000 per truck to the farmers,” says Zohaib.

He says he took the bold decision and decided to sow six months of watermelon by compromising three crops’ traditional pattern.

“In view of all calculations, I sowed watermelon in November 2022. The crop was expected to be ready for harvesting in March or April and I was sure it will be sold in the surrounding fruit markets of the Sahiwal division at least at the previous rates.”

The surrounding closest fruit markets are located at Okara, Arifwala, Pakapattan, Chichawatni and Sahiwal city. The other reason for his opting for the watermelon was the transportation cost from his farm to the above local markets which is not more than Rs8,000 to Rs9,000 per truck.

“My watermelon crop had grown well. I invested Rs150,000 including the cost of seed, fertilizer, pesticides, labour, in six months crop. It was sure the produce would be 450 to 500 maunds from one acre. My total cost over one acre watermelon sowing was around Rs175,000 which meant I invested around Rs1.45m.”

Zohaib says the crop was grown well and the watermelon was getting to its maximum size without any damage in the last five months. He was hoping to get more than 12 truckloads of watermelon having a weight of 300 maund (12,000kg) each.

“By keeping in view previous year’s rate calculation, I was sure to sell watermelon crop from Rs8m to Rs8.4m in the local market.”

But things started changing because of unexpected rainfall since the first week of March along with two hailstorms. The continuous rain spells greatly damaged the watermelon crop while the low temperature during the last three weeks added fuel to the fire. Watermelon needs heat to have full growth and ripen in March and April.

By seeing the weather conditions, Zohaib decided to dispose of his watermelon crop. But this time around, he would get two to three trucks of the crop instead of the expected 13 to 15 trucks.

The other problem that watermelon farmers like Zohaib are facing is that there is no chance of selling crops in the local market as the people don’t like eating watermelon in rainy and cloudy weather or temperate conditions.

During the last two days, the rain further damaged Zohaib’s dream crop and investment.

“Some of my friends suggested me to take watermelon to Islamabad as the market in federal capital had a better rate for it. Lahore was not feasible. Hence, I hired labourers, paid them Rs20,000, filled truck with 300 maund watermelon coming out of four acres and moved to Islamabad by hired a truck at Rs. 85,000.

Zohaib was assured by commission agents that his truck will be sold at Rs 400,000 in the Islamabad fruit market. Yesterday Zohaib rushed to Islamabad on public transport via Lahore while his watermelon truck is coming behind via Faisalabad. But the irony of the fact is his 300 maund truck came out from four acres land. Hence instead of getting 13-15 trucks the ongoing rain has spoiled his crops. He will get just two to three trucks from his eight acres land.

“I paid Rs20,000 to the labour to pick and load watermelons on trucks from flooded fields. The transportation from Sahiwal to Islamabad cost me Rs85,000. The market agents will take an eight percent commission on the total sales. This means, if my truckload is sold at Rs400,000, I have to pay Rs32,000 commission,” Zohaib says. He travelled to Islamabad and sold his truckload at just Rs350,000. He plans to dispose of his reaming four acres of watermelon unless the temperature goes up.

“Otherwise, I am not sure to get Rs700,000 against my Rs1.4m investment in the watermelon crop,” he laments.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2023