An agri entrepreneur combines morality with business
Last week, I went to Chittagong, invited by one of my closest younger brother, Dr Goutam Buddha Das, Vice Chancellor of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU). He's an articulate person and has that entrepreneurship and zeal for the work. I know him since the early 90s when he was a scientific officer at the Fisheries Research Institute.
He invited me as the orientation keynote speaker at the Freshers' Orientation 2017-2018 programme of CVASU. Since I was visiting the district, I had also in my mind to find some work for TV. I visited some of the departments of the university. Our Chittagong bureau chief informed me about a stunningly successful farmer who has been working on large-scale farming. You know the rest. I had to visit the farm after hearing such glorious stories of the farmer.
There are many areas under Chittagong City Corporation which are yet to be urbanised. One such locality is Dakkhin Halishahar. It's a bit far from the maddening crowd and noise of the mega city. Leaving those behind, I could finally reach an agricultural kingdom, I would term. Let me tell you why I'm calling it this way. The arable area of the farm is so extensive that your eyes will even stop searching the end boundary. The man who built this agricultural empire, Muhammad Mohsin is very popular among the locals. It's very rare to find such big arable land in rural parts of Bangladesh. However, the land doesn't solely belong to Mohsin. He took lease of the lands long ago and has continued agriculture there with great enthusiasm.
Mohsin's family has a long heritage in Chittagong. They had a couple of fishing boats and also some groceries. Mohsin didn't inherit much property but he always had the passion to be an entrepreneur who'll hold the steering strong and the destination would be clear as blue sunny sky. And this has made him a true farmer, a great visionary. He's an ideal farmer and an idol to many. He has the skills for commercial management of his farm. His huge work goes on over 200 kani leased land beside Chittagong City Corporation waste dumping ground. On 100 kani land of the total land, he has started growing tomatoes.
Nowadays, we don't usually see farmers on field early morning. But, for the past two months, Mohsin's farm is ever so busy. Everyone here is working with tomatoes. Every day, tonnes of tomatoes go to the market. The labourers of the farm took a tea break. Most of them come from outside Chittagong. At present, it's difficult to get farm labourers. But here in Mohsin's farm, the picture is entirely opposite. The workers here are very happy and they have full job satisfaction. I had a little chat with a couple of them.
"Do you like working here?" I asked.
"Absolutely, we're so happy," a labourer named Jamil replied.
"Why?" I asked him.
"Two times we get food during the day and we're paid on time," he gladly replied.
I don't see this regularly on field in different parts of the country, dear readers. But, here, the things are going on very smoothly between the owner and his employees. I can very well recollect, a decade back I used to find farmers getting irritated with their lunch as the farm-owner intentionally made it so spicy that they would eat less. Mohsin is a big-hearted farmer, I must admit. He evaluates his skilled labourers with justified perfection.
"I have been working for the past two decades and it's been a wonderful journey," says Azizar Rahman who's working in his sixties, solid and steady. He came from Lalmonirhat and got so passionately engaged with Mohsin's farm.
Amena works from 8:00am to 1:00pm and then gets a two-hour break. She works again from 3:00pm to 5:00pm.
"I have two daughters and I am glad that I can bear their educational expenses," says the happy woman labourer.
When Mohsin started farming on Iqbal Mian's land 30 years back, Dakkhin Halishahar area was popular for watermelons. It was also very much popular in Patenga.
"However, I thought, let's gamble with cultivating vegetables," says Mohsin.
This season the activities in tomato market are going on in full swing.
"On how much land you're doing tomato?" I asked Mohsin.
"100 kani which cost me 60 lakh taka," he replied.
"How much will you get in return?" I asked him again.
"One crore taka," Mohsin replied.
The only problem Mohsin faces is with the fertiliser, but I kept on asking him about the yield and the market price and all that.
"Every day how many maunds of tomato do you harvest?" I asked.
"5,000 to 6,000 kg, per kg Tk 35," he said.
"What was the price at the beginning of the season?" I wanted to know.
"Tk 100 to Tk 120 a kg," Mohsin replied with a big smile on his face.
The utmost positive about Mohsin is he's very much caring about his farm-labourers. That's what played the biggest role in the development of his farm and its expansion.
"When money started coming in huge amounts to my farm, I never forgot my workers," says Mohsin whose moral is more than his business goal.
Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer Subir Sen has inspired Mohsin to use sex pheromone trap at his farm. The blooming field of tomatoes are filled with properly planned traps which give Mohsin yields more than expected.
Dear readers, the revolution in vegetable farming has been contributing to the change in the farming pattern across the country for quite long. But behind this positive development, there is always the hand of great farmers or farm-entrepreneurs like Mohsin. I have met such farmers in recent times who are, on the one hand, meeting the demand of vegetables, and on the other, earning huge profits. Right at the moment, short-term vegetable farming is highly profitable for farmers. After the vegetables, they take the work of cultivating paddies. Likewise, Mohsin will start Boro cultivation after all his tomatoes are harvested. It's interesting that progressive farmers are no longer walking behind the season; they're actually a step ahead and looking forward with a realistic vision. That is why I truly believe, concepts of successful farming from farmers like Mohsin can always be followed by others to bring in the holistic development in our farming sector.