Nursing nature, making fortune

Gopal Chandra Das nursing seedlings at his nursery. PHOTO: STAR

There are at least 1200 nurseries in urban and rural areas in Satkhira Sader, Tala, Kolaroa, Debhata and Kaligonj upazilas, according to a survey done by this correspondent. These are supplying saplings of fruit, timber and flower plants.

Md Noor Ali Biswas, 50, a poor farmer of Puratan Satkhira Das Para village in the town, could not feed his eight-member family with four sons and two daughters. He has changed his life after converting his 25 decimal courtyard into a nursery six years back.

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This year, he purchased 16 decimal land at Tk 80,000 and leased two bighas of land to expand his nursery. His sons could not go to school due to poverty. Now his youngest daughter goes to school.

Now he earns about Tk 125000 from the nursery annually, which is enough to maintain his family. Many others in the village have been encouraged by his success. He hopes to earn around Tk four lakh annually from his expanded nursery.

Besides helping increase three plantation, Noor Ali says he is making a significant contribution to changing traditional fruit trees in the area with good and high yielding varieties. He supplies saplings of mango plants like Himsagar, Langra, Gopal Bhog, Fazli Ampropoli and Mallika.

Gopal Chandra Das was unemployed after passing SSC examination. He started a small nursery on 10 decimal land in the courtyard in 1998. This has changed the lot of his family. His parents are happy with him. He has employed five men.

This year he expanded the nursery to two acres with about four lakh saplings of fruit and timber trees. He earned Tk 90,000 last year and expects to earn Tk 150,000 in the coming season.

He supplies saplings to Dhaka, Sylhet, Chittagong, Barisal, Faridpur and Manikganj.