Sharmin Akter of Binodpur in Rajshahi won first place in the "rooftop garden created at individual and institutional level" category of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's National Tree Plantation Award 2025 for the garden she built on her house. In a Jagonews24 report published on 12 July 2026 she said selling saplings and pots from the garden brings her about Tk 12 lakh a year. She was a student of the 2001-02 session of the Department of Management Studies at Rajshahi University.
From a hobby to 2,600 square feet
Sharmin Akter started a small garden on her own roof in 2022. By her account, the garden now covers about 2,600 square feet across the ground floor and roof of the three-storey house, laid out in three tiers, with more than 3,500 plants of about 110 native and foreign species. It is called "Nature's Touch", though people in the area know it as "Krishibari".
She sells saplings and pots both online and in person and said this brings in about Tk 1 lakh a month on average. Three workers are employed regularly, and she said she plans to create jobs for more than 50 people in Rajshahi. Her husband, Md Jahangir Alam, told Jagonews24 that his wife does most of the care, while he collects saplings from different places and helps send ordered plants by courier to buyers around the country.
What grows in the garden
According to Jagonews24, the garden holds:
- Indoor plants: adenium, aglaonema, anthurium, peace lily, snake plant, succulents, euphorbia, pothos, ZZ plant, ferns, cactus and money plant
- Medicinal plants: lemongrass, stevia, kalmegh, insulin plant, neem, rosemary, oregano, pathorkuchi and ulatkambal
- Rare plants: parijat, sweet tamarind, white jamun, fiddle-leaf fig and cycas
- Native trees she described as threatened: camphor, ashoka, hijal, palash, mahua and banyan
- Fruit: mango, jamun, jackfruit, lychee, strawberry, rambutan, avocado and apple
- Vegetables: chilli, tomato, bottle gourd, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, aubergine, bitter gourd and drumstick
The national award and the tree fair
Jagonews24 reported on 8 July that the government had chosen 21 individuals and institutions in seven categories for this round of the tree plantation award, with the list published in a 15 June notification from the ministry's Forest-2 branch. In the rooftop garden category (category E), Sharmin Akter of Rajshahi came first, Asfia Sabina of Dhaka second and Arifa Siddika, administrator of Sherpur municipality, third.
BSS and the Dhaka Tribune reported that on 9 July 2026 Prime Minister Tarique Rahman opened the Environment Fair and the National Tree Plantation Campaign and National Tree Fair at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka, and presented the National Environment Award 2025, the National Wildlife Conservation Award 2026 and the National Tree Plantation Award 2025. The Dhaka fair was to run for a month, with shorter fairs in divisional, district and upazila towns. Jagonews24 reported that Sharmin Akter received her award at this ceremony.
Her view and the agriculture office's
"Rooftop gardening is not just a hobby; it is a promising sector for protecting the environment, producing safe food and creating jobs," Sharmin Akter told Jagonews24. She said she studied business but had dreamed of farming since childhood; people who once looked down on the garden now ask her how to earn from one. Her neighbour Abdul Hakim said her success has made many people in the area keen to plant on their own roofs.
Papia Rahman Mouri, additional deputy director (horticulture) of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Rajshahi district, said many people in Rajshahi now keep rooftop gardens and the department gives them technical support and advice. Rajshahi is hotter than other regions, she said, and rooftop gardens help to lower the temperature. The city, on the north bank of the Padma, has mean maximum temperatures of about 32 to 36 °C from April to July. Research summaries note that leaves, cooled by transpiration, stay cooler than bare roofs, and that widespread rooftop gardens could reduce urban heat.
Photo: Wiki Ruhan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sources: Jagonews24, Jagonews24 (8 July 2026), Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Dhaka Tribune, Wikipedia (Rajshahi; Roof garden)
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