Moslem Uddin once tended other people's cattle and later hawked pickles and peanuts door to door. Today he runs about 50 acres of early-variety sour jujube orchards in Sakhipur upazila of Tangail, and this season he expects to sell Tk 10 million worth of fruit with a profit of around Tk 3 million.

Poverty kept him out of school. After marrying in 1997 he sold pickles and nuts at homes, school gates and markets to keep his family fed. Around 2010 he leased six acres for 12 years and planted lemons, and the venture paid off quickly. He then reasoned that the sour jujube used in the pickles so popular with women was a crop worth growing himself.

He began with 10 acres of early sour jujube at Kirtankhola in Gazaria union, then leased a further 40 acres or so at seven sites in Indarjani village of Kakrajan union. Picking started in early August. Eight to ten sacks a day, each of about 60 kilograms, go to the wholesale markets at Karwan Bazar and Shyambazar in Dhaka, where the early fruit fetches Tk 150–160 a kilo — Tk 72,000 to Tk 96,000 a day.

In the peak months of November and December the price dips but volumes rise, and daily sales reach Tk 100,000–150,000, he said. About Tk 1 million of fruit has been sold so far this season. Last season excessive rain at flowering cut the crop; he sold about Tk 5 million of jujube but, after lease, labour and other costs, kept only Tk 600,000–700,000.

The orchards support around 15 permanent workers through the year and 70 to 80 a day during picking. The biggest buyers are food processors that take large volumes of sour jujube for packaged pickle, so marketing is rarely a worry. Farm income has built him a three-storey house on about an acre of his own land at Dhumkhali in Gazaria; one son is studying at Lincoln University College in Malaysia.

His advice for a profitable orchard comes down to three things — variety selection, care and marketing — with timing of the harvest a fourth for early varieties. Many Sakhipur farmers have visited his orchards and some have already planted their own.

Nianta Barman, the Sakhipur upazila agriculture officer, said Moslem had succeeded with commercial cultivation of early sour jujube, that the upazila's soil suits a range of fruit crops, and that the agriculture department's field staff continue to support farm entrepreneurs.

Source: Prothom Alo