The nursery Lutfar Rahman of Bandardia village in Narsingdi's Shibpur upazila started on seven decimals of land now covers ten bighas. It holds more than 150,000 saplings of local and foreign species, sold locally and across the country, Krishi Shomoy's Narsingdi correspondent reports.
Lutfar began nursery work on family land in 1996, after his HSC examination, rather than look for a job. The first blow came quickly: the severe flood of 1998 washed the new nursery away. On the recommendation of local agriculture officers he received a Tk 10,000 loan from Krishi Bank, and with it he started again.
He later set up M/s Palli Nursery Centre at Itakhola crossing on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, beside the Shibpur fire service office. Among the foreign fruit saplings, rambutan and a year-round Vietnamese jackfruit draw the most interest. Nine men and six women work at the nursery regularly.
At the recent national tree fair at Agargaon in Dhaka, the report says, the prime minister praised Lutfar's stall, in particular the Vietnamese jackfruit trees bearing fruit out of season. On behalf of the people of Narsingdi, Lutfar presented the prime minister with a rambutan sapling and a latkan (Burmese grape) sapling.
Lutfar says he built the nursery over many years of hard work. "People cheat people, but a tree cheats no one," he said. He plans to expand the nursery further.
Started from nothing and rebuilt with a bank loan and the help of the agriculture office, the nursery is a case for rural entrepreneurs: fruit saplings sell across the country, and one nursery provides work for local men and women as well as an income for its owner. The report was filed by Krishi Shomoy's Narsingdi correspondent.
Photo: Nazmulhuqrussell / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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