He studied graphic design at honours level and then worked in a garment factory. When his health suffered, he left the job. Inspired by Shykh Seraj's programme, he went into farming, starting a lemon orchard against his parents' wishes and then a guava orchard.

H M Forwardi Palash's one-acre year-round guava orchard in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, now has 1,050 trees. He harvests every two months, with a potential income of 4 million taka a year. Others have followed him into farming, and he uses pruning to raise output.

Most strikingly, the orchard is on the way to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification with support from the agriculture department. Following 246 international-standard components, Palash dreams of supplying supershops, and GAP guava could fetch a separate market price in Bangladesh.

The report also looks at the history of guava and the Kazi guava, Bangladesh's global standing in guava production, marketing and cold storage problems, processing and export potential, the floating guava market of Barishal and its 200-year-old orchards, and the famous guava of Kanchannagar, Chattogram. It concludes that the country lacks fruit storage and processing.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Hridoye Mati O Manush. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.