Shohag Daktar's message spreads beyond Kulaura

Dr. Monirul Islam Shohag nursing betel-leaf plants in his agro-fishery project in Kanikiari village in Kulaura, Moulvibazar.. PHOTO: STAR

Dr. Monirul Islam Shohag, widely known as Shohag Daktar, has inspired the people of his native Kanikiari village in Prithimpasha union to follow him to get rid of prejudice and remove poverty. Shohag had launched his project on 22 acres of inherited land in 1996.

Now he permanently employs more than 30 villagers who look after his 'Orannye Mathshay Prokolpo' (Fishery Project in Forest) that yields a net profit of over Tk 15 lakh a year from fish, cattle, beetle-leaf and timber.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

In addition to daily wages, Shohag provides his employees and their families with free medical care, clothing and food. Moreover, he makes time everyday to offer free medical consultation and, sometimes, medicines to poor villagers.

Shohag's success has inspired several hundred families in the area to initiate such projects on their lands.

Shohag thinks that proper utilisation of land, wetland and water bodies could change the economy of every household throughout the country within a very short time.

"By farming fish properly on around 500 square feet, one can earn up to Tk 1,000 per year but farmers growing other crop on the same size of land only earns a maximum of Tk 100 per year. That is why people are attracted by my project," he says.

After obtaining MBBS degree from the Sylhet Medical College in 1998, Shohag joined a government hospital but soon realised that he had other things to do in life. Father of three sons and two daughters, Shohag returned to his ancestral village and launched his project.

"When I started to convert some agricultural land around my ancestral home into ponds, elderly villagers and my relatives looked on in suspicion, but now you can see, they themselves have taken up the same activities," he said.

Shohag's fishery ponds are spread over ten acres where about a dozen species of fishes are produced. On the remaining ten acre lands, Shohag planted more than 10,000 medicinal, timber and fruit trees, many of which mature in a year, enabling him to harvest on a regular basis.

Along with each tree a beetle-leaf creeper plant enables Shohag to sell paan to an ever-expanding market.

He says that instead of selling milk of his 35 cows, he allows the calves to suckle, which naturally helps fattening of the animals for sale during Eid festivals. The cow dung is used for producing biogas for his household use.

Shohag is not happy over the indiscriminate use of chemical fertiliser on lands. He thinks that most farmers are unaware of proper use of fertilisers and thus they are destroying soil fertility.

"I engaged two agriculturists to train 250 farmers on use of fertilisers. Many of the farmers have already reported good harvests from their lands," he says.