Magurartair’s mixed fruit orchard: a success story for others to emulate

Hundreds of people flock to a mixed fruit garden in Magurartair village of Bogura's Sherpur upazila every day to see ripe mangoes hanging from their branches as it is uncommon during the winter season.

This is all thanks to the efforts of three individuals -- Shahidul Islam, Mamunur Rashid and his brother Sohel Reza -- who went from humble beginnings to farming different varieties of fruit every season on their 40-bigha orchard.

They have already sold 400 kilogrammes of the Katimon and BARI-11 varieties of mango at Tk 500 a kg during the ongoing winter.

Islam had travelled to Malaysia in 2001 but eventually returned to Bangladesh 7 years later. After that, he tried to earn a living from numerous ventures, including poultry and cattle farming, but failed in his endeavours.

He then tried to return to Malaysia but was instead cheated out of his capital by a fraudulent agent.

"After failing in all these efforts, I started a guava orchard on a 5-bigha plot in Magurartair village in 2013 and started making profit," Islam said.

Rashid and Reza, who hail from the district's Vatra village, eventually joined hands with Islam in 2018 but before that, they too failed to earn a living from various occupations.

The pair completed their honours in social work from Bogura Government Azizul Haque College in 2010 and went on to finish their master's degree in the same discipline from Rajshahi College in 2011.

Despite achieving good marks in exams, none of them were successful in securing a single government or private job.

This led to two years of frustration. But then Rashid decided to help his father, a local farmer, to introduce safe vegetable cultivation to their village.

This was a turning point for him as the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) selected him as the country's best farmer of 2013 for his contribution to safe vegetable cultivation.

Later, the government sent Rashid on a 7-day study visit to Thailand under Kasetsart University to learn how fruit production and management is done in that country.

After his return, Rashid and Reza started cultivating Thai varieties of guava on a 3-bigha plot in Vatra village.

In 2016, they added 2 bighas to cultivate bari malta-1 alongside the guavas.

After hearing of the success the orchard had brought them, Islam paid a visit to the brothers.

Ever since that fateful meeting, the trio have worked to expand their orchards and in 2018, they leased a 15-bigha plot in Magurartair village to cultivate all sorts of fruits.

With the advice of the district horticulture centre, they cultivated bari mango-11 on 4 bighas, banana mango on one bigha, gouromoti mango on three bighas and Thai variety katimon mango on 18 bighas in 2019.

In 2020, they grew kashmiri apple ber-1 on one bigha, kashmiri apple ber-2 on three bighas and Australian balsudari jujubes on 12 bighas.

"After extending the garden, we collected plants from the different horticultural centres in the country," Rashid said.

In 2020, they earned about Tk 35 lakh from the apples, guavas, malta and mangoes harvested in the orchard.

"We also made Tk 12 lakh by selling different saplings to interested farmers across the country last year," Islam said.

For their now 40-bigha orchard, Islam, Rashid and Reza have collectively invested around Tk 1 crore, which includes Tk 20 lakh in loans taken from different banks and NGOs.

"This year, we hope to harvest jujube worth over Tk 75 lakh and other fruits worth around Tk 25 lakh," Reza said.

"We hope we will get returns on our investment this year and from next year we will only enjoy profits," he added.

The idea behind running a mixed fruits garden is to make profits every season, according to Rashid.

In a bid to imitate the success of these three farmers, others from different districts regularly visit the orchard to buy saplings for their own plantations.

Among them is Abdus Salam of Chaknur village under Sirajganj's Raiganj upazila.

"I heard about the Magurartair mixed fruits orchard in 2018 and visited the place immediately. In 2019, I brought 250 apple plants, 100 Thai guava plants and 60 pieces of bari malta plants for a 1.5 bigha garden," he said. 

In 2020, Salam harvested malta and guava worth Tk 90,000 from his plantation.

"I used to visit the Magurartair garden regularly to learn about mixed gardening," he added.

Md Samsu Mia of Korab village under Habiganj's Lakhai upazila said that he heard about the Bogura garden from YouTube and visited the garden three months ago to learn about mixed gardening.

"I eventually bought 2,000 pieces of katimon mango and cultivated them on 10 bighas of land three months ago," he added.

Abdur Rahim, deputy director of the Bogura Horticulture Centre under the DAE Bogura, said Rashid is a progressive farmer.

The 40-bigha mixed fruits garden in Magurartair village started making profits within 1.5 years of its inception.

They are cultivating fruits safely without any pesticides following the advice of the district horticulture centre and are implementing modern technology, Rahim said.

The orchard also features a 6-acre mixed fruit gardening demonstration area, which includes a 1-acre for high density guava gardening and 1-acre for high density jujube gardening, under the Year Round Fruit Production for Nutrition Improvement project.

"Therefore, the gardeners are able to harvest a huge amount of fruits throughout the year from a small area of land while general people benefit from the nutrition of fresh fruits all year long," Rahim added.

Rashid told The Daily Star: "Thousands of educated youths in our country are left searching for jobs for years and this creates unemployment problems."

"We have suitable land and have opportunities to get loans and modern technology. If the educated people were more interested in modern farming, especially in mixed fruits cultivation, their financial problems would be gone and the country's farming would get a new look," he added.