Watermelon farming in garlic fields brings success in Natore Md Ashraful Alam . Natore THE farmers are cultivating watermelon side by side garlic on a large scale in the Chalan Bil area under Gurudaspur upazila in Natore this season inspired by last year's success. The farmers are now getting interested in farming of watermelon as intercrop with garlic without tilling before transplanted aman cultivation. According to the Department of Agricultural Extension in Natore, farmers had successfully cultivated watermelon as intercrop with garlic on one hectare of land on experimental basis last year. Last year, about 60,000 pieces of watermelon were produced at a cost of about Tk 60,000. The farmers sold those at about Tk 2.5 lakh. The farmers could earn about Tk 20 thousand from a bigha (one bigha is equal to 0.13 hectare) of land. A total of 12,000 hectares of land have been brought under garlic cultivation in the district this year whereas watermelon has been cultivated side by side with it on 60-70 hectares of land. Tohidul Islam, a farmer of village Udbaria, said he had cultivated garlic on two bighas of land between October and January. In January, he cultivated watermelon alongside garlic on the same land.