Water lily cultivation turns a profit in Kurigram

Six years ago, when Mahiuddin Shohel, 28, collected his first red water lilies from a local pond to plant in a ditch, little could he have imagined it was the start of a small business. The Imam and Muezzin of Kurigram staff-quarters mosque sold the flowers for Tk 20 per piece that year. Since then his nursery has grown to include more than 800 plants and, testament to the enduring popularity of the water lily, sales are brisk.

“I've been a plant-lover since my student days,” says Shohel. “I have no training in horticulture but in 2012 I was able to lease forty decimals of land from the mosque committee. Eight decimals were submerged and suitable for water lilies.”

“Two years later I was able to visit nurseries in Dhaka's Agargaon,” he continues. “I saw that red or violet water lilies planted in a tub were being sold for up to Tk 3,000 each.”

At around that time, one of his customers, the civil surgeon then posted in Kurigram, Dr Taufiqul Islam, donated a violet variety collected from his native Dinajpur. Shohel cultivated the flower and sold twelve offshoots for Tk 2,000 each. The business looked promising.

“The following year I had more than enough new plants to sell so I reduced the price,” Shohel narrates. “This year I have sown more than 500 of the red variety in another pond.”

From Tk 6,000 as an initial investment, Shohel's nursery is now an asset worth around Tk 4 lakhs. Last year he sold around Tk 55,000 worth of water lily plants, and he hopes to expand the nursery by 15 decimals this year.

“Water lilies are popular with people with rooftop gardens,” Shohel says. “They are also used in herbal cures. They flower in every season and don't require much care.”

“Growing water lilies in unused water bodies helps to maintain biodiversity,” says the agriculture officer for Kurigram Sadar upazila, Sasty Chandra Roy. “Due to the expansion of agriculture, lilies are less common than they used to be. Mahiuddin Shohel's contribution is appreciated.”

Forever the plant-lover, Shohel has his sights set upon a new milestone. “I am trying to collect a yellow water-lily from India,” he says.