Rooftop farming and nursery

About the business

Putting pots on your own roof, raising plants and selling the seedlings. For a city household with no land this is the only farming there is, and the capital is small: a sack of soil Tk 100, plastic pots Tk 50-500, clay pots Tk 100-300 and patterned ones Tk 500-700, a watering device Tk 100-500, a weeder under Tk 250, pruning shears about Tk 400, a small packet of fertiliser Tk 20-50, bone meal Tk 90-150 and coco coir Tk 150 (Dhaka, October 2025). The line between a hobby garden and a business is whether you are propagating and selling. Forman Hasnat's garden at Pekua in Cox's Bazar holds 460 species, about 150 of them cactus. He sells cactus at Tk 50-1,200, ferns at Tk 500-5,000 and stephania at Tk 150-1,500. Between October 2024 and 25 January 2026 he couriered 609 plants, averaging Tk 30,000-35,000 a month and at least four lakh a year. He does everything from grafting to building the shade house himself, learned off YouTube. One thing nobody says: the accessories carry more money than the plant. As a Mohammadpur nursery owner puts it, 'a fifty-taka plant needs a hundred and fifty taka of other things'. Sell the pot, the soil and the fertiliser with the plant or there is no profit. One government benefit was announced in June 2023 - a 10 percent rebate on holding tax for a rooftop garden in city corporation areas, on condition the garden is kept clean and does not breed mosquitoes. Whether the circular was ever issued could not be verified here, so ask your own city corporation's revenue office.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• Pots and tools at Dhaka nursery prices (October 2025): plastic pots Tk 50-500, small clay pots Tk 100-300, patterned clay pots Tk 500-700, watering device Tk 100-500, weeder under Tk 250, pruning shears Tk 400. A shade house can be built by hand.Equipment
• Mother plants and seedlings; soil at Tk 100 a sack; small fertiliser packets Tk 20-50; an insecticide packet under Tk 250; pest medicine Tk 100-200; bone meal for calcium Tk 90-150 and coco coir Tk 150 a packet.Starting stock
• Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality once you sell plants regularly: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
• Cuttings, grafting and propagation. The Pekua grower did everything from grafting to building the shade house himself, learned from YouTube and reading. Add the knack of packing plants for courier and photographing them on a phone.Skill
• In Dhaka the nurseries at Agargaon, 300 Feet, 100 Feet, Diabari, Doel Chattar, Beily Road, Kakrail and Beribandh, with about 500 more in Savar, Ashulia, Rupganj and Gazipur. A Monday plant fair at Rayerbazar sells the same things cheaper.Supplier
• Your own roof or balcony with drainage and a structure that can take the load, plus the landlord's consent in a rented house. A 10 percent holding tax rebate for rooftop gardens in city corporation areas was decided in June 2023, conditional on keeping the garden clean and free of mosquito breeding; whether the circular was issued could not be verified.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Check permission and the roof's load capacity first. In a rented house get the landlord's consent in writing: pots full of wet soil are heavy, and standing water on the roof becomes an argument with the landlord.
2. 2Sort out drainage before the pots go down and set each pot on bricks or a tray. Preventing mosquito breeding is not only a health matter here: it is one of the conditions attached to the holding tax rebate.
3. 3Decide what you will sell: ordinary flower and fruit seedlings, or rare indoor plants like cactus, succulents and ferns. Ordinary seedlings go for Tk 50, rare plants for well over a thousand, but rare plants take far more time and care.
4. 4Buy mother plants from a reliable source. The Pekua grower was cheated ordering online at the start and lost plants to poor care, and those are the two commonest beginner mistakes.
5. 5Learn cuttings, grafting and propagation. That is what separates a hobby garden from a nursery: if you cannot raise your own plants you are only buying and reselling, and the margin is thin.
6. 6Sell the pot, soil and fertiliser with the plant. A Mohammadpur seller reckons a Tk 50 plant needs Tk 150 of other things, and those things carry more money than the plant.
7. 7Fix your selling places: Facebook plant groups, your own page, and tree fairs. A plant fair runs every Monday beside the Rayerbazar memorial in Dhaka, where prices are comparatively lower.
8. 8Learn to ship by courier. From the Pekua garden 609 plants went across the country in 15 months. Unless the roots are wrapped with soil, the leaves tied and the box vented, the plant dies on the way.
9. 9Go to your city corporation's revenue office and ask whether the 10 percent holding tax rebate for rooftop gardens is being given. The local government minister announced the decision on 14 June 2023 and the application had come from Dhaka North City Corporation.
10. 10Once you sell regularly, take the trade licence: form Tk 10, book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee by trade type.
11. 11Record how long each plant took to become saleable and what it sold for. Roof space is limited: a plant that occupies space for six months and returns Tk 50 should give way to one that returns Tk 800.

Sources

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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