An inspiration for new e-commerce entrepreneurs

Nipa Sen Gupta, a resident of Rajshahi district, had no idea that the lessons learnt in her school-life could help her grow into a successful entrepreneur amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

A bachelor's student in her final year at Rajshahi Government Women's College, Nipa sells heritage agricultural products and traditional food items.

She takes orders from the Women and e-Commerce (WE) forum on Facebook, which has more than 10 lakh members.

She also launched a separate buy and sell group on the popular social media platform on traditional agricultural products called "Oitijjhobahi Krishir Amreto Swadh".

Nipa's journey began in 2013 without her knowing it.

Nipa had just passed her SSC from a school in her home upazila of Iswardi in Pabna district. One day, along with her friends, she was returning home after collecting her mark sheet and certificate from the school.

"On our way home, there was a tree of Falsa fruit. The fruit was not known to everyone then, but it was tasty," Nipa said.

"We played with it and gossiped together by sitting under the tree on uncountable occasions," she added.

On her last day in school, Nipa took a number of photographs as a memorabilia of the tree.

"I loved the colour of the fruit."

Bangladesh began recognising Falsa as a local fruit in January this year."

Two years later, she settled in Rajshahi city with her husband Amreto Sarker, who works at a nongovernmental organisation.

"From the beginning of our married life, I always wanted to do something. I wanted to stand on my own feet and help my husband run the family."

She thought about selling cooked food from home but her husband opposed the idea and insisted on putting education first.

Then the pandemic creeped in.

"We had no problem in the first few months but eventually had to suffer when his salary became irregular for several months. It was then I became desperate to do something."

Then, one of her friends drew her attention to the WE forum.

"I surfed the group for several days and saw hundreds of women were successfully selling their products. I felt inferior. Everyone had a different product. I could not find a product for myself to start with."

But she kept following and posting questions in the group.

One day, she posted her school-life photograph with Falsa fruits in her hand.

"I shared the photograph to entertain the group members. Even I wanted to know if there is someone having any idea of the fruit," Nipa said.

The photograph received an enormous response.

"Many were enquiring about where to find Falsa saplings and if I could supply them."

One medical student from Jessore, Fatima Khatun, called her to ask for saplings and requested to help her finding one.

"She was telling me that she had some good memories with the fruit and she wants to raise a tree now at her home to carry the memories."

"It was for her that I began looking for the saplings at local nurseries. When I found one, I sent her a Falsa sapling by bus. She paid through bKash. It was my first earning."

Nipa then sold some 400 Falsa saplings and made a profit of Tk 22,000 in 15 days in June, 2020.

"It built my confidence but there was a lot to learn," she said.

Nipa then learned from WE forum's President Nasima Akter and Admin Rajib Ahmed about digital skills.

She continued selling the Falsa saplings and soon local nurseries became exhausted of their supply.

"The demand for Falsa saplings continued to rise, but I could not supply any."

So, Nipa started to loose heart.  

But her husband Amreto helped her collecting some Falsa seeds from a tree at the Rajshahi Nagar Bhaban premises and he sent the seeds to his father who is a farmer in Natore to grow plants.

While the Falsa seeds were under the growing process, Nipa needed another product.

"My husband came up with an idea."

Rural Rajshahi has a heritage of eating Barley powder or Chhatu and a mix of five grains consisting Barley, Binni variety rice, wheat, chickpeas and red lentil, Amreto said.

And farmers of the water-starved region grow these grains in plenty as these require less irrigation, he added.

Nipa collected Barley powder and the five grains' mix and wrote about those in the e-commerce group.

Some 600 people bought these two items. Nipa made at least Tk 2.5 lakh profit in three months since July.

"Chhatu is such a popular item that I made it my signature product," Nipa says.

She usually buys Barley, wheat, rice and other agricultural products from local markets and employs rural women to prepare those for making powder.

She makes the powder both in automatic mills and in husking pedal.

"Chhatu that was threshed in a husking pedal has its demand. Some of the buyers have ordered thrice and more," Nipa said.

This year, Nipa took 12 bighas of land on lease in Tanore upazila to cultivate barley without using any chemicals on it. She employed four sharecroppers and provided them with free seeds for cultivation.

"My intention is to save the local heritage of producing barley. It is fetching me money," she said.

Bangladesh witnessed a fall in barley production from 20,000 tonnes in 1971 to 7,000 tonnes in 2020, according to the World Data Atlas of Knoema.

Samir Saha, an Ayurvedic doctor, orders 10 kilogrammes of Chhatu every week for his orphanage in Netrokona. Some order for diabetic while others choose for their children.

Nipa's daily average sales now hover around Tk 10,000.

Her products include black gram, black gram threshed in Jata, a swirling traditional threshing tool, dusts of neem and drumstick leaves, wheat's red flour, water lily seeds.

She also sells date molasses, cane molasses, ghee, pumpkin seeds, barley flour, wheat flour, dried tamarind, dried jujube, black cumin and flax.

Nipa's products have already reached to 62 districts of the country, other than Chapainawabganj and Naogaon. She even home delivers her products in Rajshahi city.

"My dream is now to expand more, to set up some infrastructure of my business and permanently employ the rural women who are helping me prepare the products on the basis of orders," Nipa said.

She said she was thinking of applying for a loan for her ventures.

"I now feel wonderful, self-reliant, and economically capable to feed my choices. I feel happy that I found an identity of my own," Nipa added.

About 70 per cent of the group's 11.5 lakh members are women and four lakhs of them are entrepreneurs of different local products, Nasima of the WE forum told The Daily Star.

"All the women entrepreneurs of our group were engaged in the sales driven by the need for self-development and upgrade their economic condition."

She said women entrepreneurs mainly suffer from two problems – the lack of access to internet and access to the product delivery chain.

"Internet speed is another problem for areas outside Dhaka city. Some of our members struggle while using internet through mobile data."

She said product delivery chain was limited within the district headquarters, sometimes the upazila levels.

"If the delivery chain can be extended to the union level, the entrepreneurs would have been benefited more."

She urged the authorities concerned to look into the problems of the entrepreneurs.