Rather than look for a job, Mehedi Hasan of Madanpura union in Bauphal, Patuakhali, started a plant nursery with just Tk 70,000. The nursery that began on 33 decimals now covers 125, and he sells about 300,000 medicinal plant saplings a month from it.
A graduate of Bauphal Government College, Mehedi turned to farming in 2018 by growing vegetables on his family's fallow land and gradually moved into nurseries. He now has about 3,500 species, producing and selling saplings of medicinal, timber, fruit and vegetable plants. The plants in the nursery are worth an estimated Tk 15 lakh to 16 lakh.
The medicinal saplings include stevia, peace fruit, soursop, butterfly pea, holy basil, neem, arjun, amla, haritaki, bahera, chui jhal, moringa, bael, Indian almond, pistachio and aloe vera.
Buyers come from Dashmina, Galachipa and Bhola as well as Bauphal, and he also sells online. Many people are cheated when buying saplings online or at village markets, he says; at the nursery they can check the variety and quality for themselves. He faced plenty of obstacles at first and now plans a larger nursery that can employ others.
Bauphal upazila agriculture officer Md Milon said medicinal plants are part of the government programme to plant 250 million trees over the next five years. Extension officers are encouraging farmers to plant them through sapling distribution and other incentives, and Mehedi's nursery stocks many medicinal species.
Reporting: Patuakhali correspondent, Krishi Shomoy
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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