Former expat making it big from date cultivation

Zakir Hossain, a resident of Swajanpur village under Phulbari upazila of Dinajpur, has succeeded in cultivating date palm trees on his native soil, paving the way for other youths in the area to try their hand at farming the fruit.

Hossain began the venture in hopes of finding a good source of income after returning from Kuwait, where he worked at an automobile repair shop before opening one himself by investing Tk 40 lakh.

He now rarely finds the time to sit still these days, with around 300 saplings having been sold from his farm for about Tk 1,000 per piece.

Hossain informed that he had no interest in agriculture when he travelled to Kuwait as an expatriate worker back in 1999.

"But during my stay in Kuwait, I saw date trees all around, which encouraged me to learn about how to grow them," he said.

Eventually, Hossain collected 12 kilogrammes (kgs) of date seeds of different varieties, including Azwa, Maryam, Anbara and Matzel, which he brought back to Bangladesh in 2017.

It took Hossain around one-and-a-half years to grow the seeds into 19 saplings, which he planted on 20 decimals of land in his village before flying back to Kuwait in early 2019.

But just before the outbreak of Covid-19, Hossain returned to Bangladesh in December later that year. He soon found that he could not return to Kuwait due to restrictions on cross-border movement amid a global lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of the deadly pathogen.

Hossain tried time and again to go back to Kuwait to run his business, but it ultimately fell prey to the coronavirus fallout.

"My garage was repossessed as I could not pay the rent and utility bills. So, I decided to turn my focus to agriculture," he said, adding that two of his 19 date trees finally flowered in February 2021.

And although the yield was negligible at first, Hossain kept up his efforts and now gets up to 300 kgs of dates from each of his four full-grown trees.

However, Hossain only sells saplings grown from the seeds of his previous harvests.

During a visit to Hossain's orchard on Thursday, this correspondent found a variety of colourful dates on four trees of varying heights.

Zakir said each sapling starts flowering within four to five years of planting, with each tree growing to a maximum height of about 35 feet.

"The best fruit-yielding duration is 75 years," he added.

While pointing out how each date tree needs a decimal of land to grow properly, Hossain said the flowing period is from February to March while July to August is the optimum time for harvesting.

"Dates can be left on the tree without harvest for six months," he said.

But as it is an exotic plant species native to desert lands, it needs a lot of watering. But other than that, caring for the plant requires no extra labour than any other fruit bearing tree.  

Hossain also said he has sold not a single kg of dates from his orchard as he preserves them as seeds for growing saplings, which are sold to farmers looking to grow dates on a commercial basis.

Hossain is now preparing to expand his orchard with an additional two acres of land.

Bishwanath Roy, a resident of Bochaganj upazila in Dinajpur, collected 20 date saplings from Hossain while another youth from his village took 24 saplings.

The annual demand for dates in Bangladesh is around 90,000 metric tonnes.

The demand is met through imports from different countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Sudan and Pakistan, according to data of the National Board of Revenue.

Demand is particularly high during Ramadan, which accounts for 50 percent of the annual imports.

And as date farming is not uncommon in the country, Hossain says a large portion of the annual demand could be met through local production if youths come forward to turn their land into date orchards.

KJM Abdul Awal, additional director of horticulture at the Department of Agricultural Extension, said the exotic middle eastern variety is cultivated on a total of around six hectares of land across Bangladesh.

"But it is still a fruit people in the country are passionate about. But as it is a fruit of the Mediterranean, cultivating it is not profitable commercially considering the high humidity in Bangladesh," he said.

"It is only profitable if it is sold before it becomes ripe," Awal added.