Medicinal plant farming

About the business

Growing basok, kalomegh, tulsi, arjun, shimul root and ashwagandha and selling the leaves, stems and roots. The biggest difference from vegetables or fruit is the buyer. Here it is not a shopper but a unani or ayurvedic medicine manufacturer, buying by tender or contract, which means the price is written down somewhere - and that is the real advantage of this crop. In Sribardi, Sherpur, the Forest Department's SUFAL plantations carry basok across 350 hectares of hillocks, and in one year the leaf from 180 hectares was sold by tender at Tk 4 a kilo for Tk 16.2 lakh. Pharmaceutical companies make cough syrup from basok leaf, so the demand never goes away. The sums are small but they are certain. In Palashbari, Gaibandha, a bigha of kalomegh costs about Tk 15,000 to grow, yields 20 to 22 maunds, and sells at Tk 2,400 a maund. Kalomegh planted between Chaitra and Jaishtha is cut in six months, tulsi in 90 days, and basok once planted yields for eight to ten years. The caution is the same one: the buyer. In Lakshmipur-Khalabaria, Natore - the country's only medicinal village - cooperative leaders are still asking for a research centre and a cosmetics factory in the village. With no plant nearby, the company sets the price.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• A sickle, a drying area and scales. Because the product is dried there is no need for cold storage or special machinery, which is why the capital demand here is light.Equipment
• Saplings from a local nursery or another grower's collection point; one Gaibandha grower's nursery alone holds 10,000. The unit price of a sapling was not found in any source.Starting stock
• Trade licence from the union parishad, municipality or city corporation: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Opening a collection point or nursery, and invoicing a company, both require it.Licence
• Knowing which part of which plant to cut and when - leaf, stem or root - and at what stage the quality holds. Cut at the wrong time and the company sends it back.Skill
• The buyer: a unani or ayurvedic medicine manufacturer. Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies make cough syrup from basok leaf, so the demand never goes away. The Sribardi basok leaf is being lifted under tender by a trader from Gaibandha.Supplier
• Land measured in bighas, though yards, roadsides and fallow hillocks all work. In Sribardi 350 hectares of basok grow under existing timber plantations on hillocks, so separate land is not essential.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Buyer first, plant second. Find out which medicine company or herb trader buys in your area, which plants they buy and at what rate. The upazila agriculture office or a local kobiraj will know.
2. 2Decide which plant, because the time and the money differ. Tulsi is cut in 90 days, kalomegh in six months, and basok once planted yields for eight to ten years. Basok means waiting longer for almost no cost.
3. 3Start small, in the corners around the house. Rafiqul Islam of Gaibandha began in 2007 by putting kalomegh in odd corners, then leased a bigha for basok, arjun and tulsi, and only expanded once he saw the profit.
4. 4Plant kalomegh between Chaitra and Jaishtha; it is ready to cut within six months.
5. 5Make and use your own compost. Rafiqul Islam makes his own and puts it on the land; it is the simplest way to keep the cost down, and basok needs almost no fertiliser or pesticide at all.
6. 6Collect the leaves and stems, dry them, then sell by the kilo. A dried product can be held, so you can wait for a better price - something a vegetable or fruit grower cannot do.
7. 7Take two cuttings in the dry season. The basok plantations in Sribardi are harvested twice a year.
8. 8Sell as a group. In Sribardi 480 beneficiaries in eight groups across four areas sell their leaf by tender, and four hundred people's four lakh kilos fetch a far better rate than one person's two maunds.
9. 9Set up a collection point beside the house. Rafiqul Islam sells leaves, stems and saplings from one, and the large medicine manufacturers come and buy there.
10. 10Treat a sapling nursery as a separate income. Rafiqul's nursery holds 10,000 saplings and he sells into Rangpur, Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Chattogram and Dinajpur as well as Gaibandha, moving about Tk 15 lakh of saplings and plants a year.

Sources

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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