Ashraful, who was unemployed, once did not even know what a dragon fruit was. He learned about it from various people and online, then started growing it. He dreams of standing on his own feet and inspires others to dream too. His eyes widened when he heard the market price of dragon fruit, Tk 550 a kg, and he thought he could grow it too. That was how he started.

Ashraful is the second son of Mojibur Rahman of Shrighar Bogahani village in Shyamgram union, Nabinagar upazila, Brahmanbaria. Six months ago, as a trial, he spent more than Tk 1 lakh planting dragon fruit on 6 decimals of land and built 375 pillars. He is now waiting for the plants on those pillars to bear fruit.

He has many other plans besides the orchard. He has set an annual target of Tk 60,000 from selling dragon fruit, and hopes it will grow over time.

"People waste time hoping for a job or to go abroad, but I have left all that aside and taken up farming as my profession," Ashraful said. "Villagers are curious about what will come of this. I am moving ahead with a plan to turn their curiosity into reality and to encourage others to do this work too. I started with my own means, but with help from the agriculture department I could go further."

Nabinagar upazila agriculture officer Rafiqul Islam said: "I have joined recently. At the moment I have no information on dragon fruit farming in Nabinagar. The agriculture department has no incentive for dragon fruit, but if anyone asks for help, the department will provide training and technical support."

Source: Amader Shomoy. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.