Guava on 28 leased char bighas, Tk 1 lakh profit per bigha; his earlier 105-bigha orchard died

This entrepreneur, who has a master's in economics from Rajshahi College, worked for two years at an IT firm in Dhaka before coming into farming. According to a report in The Business Standard, in 2018 he leased 28 bighas of land at Char Asharidah in Godagari for five years and planted a guava orchard. Char land then leased for Tk 8,000–10,000 a bigha; he took it at Tk 15,000 per bigha a year, so the lease alone came to Tk 4.2 lakh a year. Including bagging, pesticides, irrigation and labour, first-year costs were Tk 13 to 14 lakh.

First-year sales recovered the costs. In the second year, after all costs, he made a profit of Tk 1 lakh per bigha, that is, Tk 28 lakh. In the third year, because of Covid, guava that cost Tk 20–25 a kg to produce sold for Tk 30, so there was little profit. He sorts and packs the guava in the orchard and sends it by truck to Dhaka and to Khorkhori market in Rajshahi.

His earlier experience had been hard: every tree in his 105-bigha guava orchard on high Barind land in Godagari died after three and a half years. In his view, trees last longer in the sandy-loam soil of the char; up to the time of the report, 15 trees had died on the char. Following his example, many others have planted guava on the char, and land lease prices are rising too.