I was born and raised in Natore Sadar. From a very young age, I was interested in taking care of plants. My love and passion for cultivation inspired me to start a farming business. In the early days, I used to run a shop where I was selling pesticides. But then I thought of utilizing my expertise in medicinal plants and decided to pursue that as a business.

Many in my network ridiculed my entrepreneurial passion simply because I didn’t have access to education. But that did not stop me from chasing my entrepreneurial dreams. 2014 marked the beginning of Shahidul Farmers’ Hub, the name of my enterprise, and to date, it has been running successfully overcoming several obstacles along the journey. Today, I run both the shop and the farm in parallel.

Currently, Shahidul Farmers’ Hub, supported by Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture Bangladesh, has 150 variants of plants and vegetables. We mostly specialize in medicinal plants such as aloe vera, bashok, tulsi etc. We sell these products to individual hawkers as well as companies. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, which stalled my business for 3-4 months, I was faced with a loss of around 2-3 lacs taka. But I didn’t think of stopping. I kept my cultivation running. What kept me going was an indomitable spirit and belief that better days lay ahead.  

For all the years that I have been running my business, I solely took all my decisions. I believe that people need to be risk-takers to run a successful business. I never follow any fixed routine. My work depends upon the season. When it’s peak time for cultivation, I have to wake up very early and end up working for 14-15 hours a day. I manage 5-6 people during the harvesting season. In spite of my lack of education, I’m always curious about gaining new practical business knowledge. And so in 2017-18, I stumbled upon LightCastle Partners’ SmartCap accelerator program. Following graduation, my enterprise saw five times growth in revenue.

I’m so disheartened to see the youth of our country gradually losing interest in farming while inclining more towards industrial production. Farming runs in my blood, it makes my living; it delivers happiness to me in ways, shapes, and forms that I can’t even begin to explain. Perhaps because of all these, I feel so strongly about why the youth should join farming. Our country is dependent on agriculture. With increasing support from the government, this sector is poised to flourish further. Why squander the opportunity?  

My next aim in life is to introduce medicinal tea. The medicinal tea will help build a stronger immunity along with providing other health benefits. Machineries worth 5 lacs taka have already been purchased. I want to make this product accessible in every corner of Bangladesh.