From a two-shotok homestead to 15 lakh taka of medicinal plants a year

This 56-year-old from Kettarpara village in Mahdipur union, Palashbari, Gaibandha, had no cultivable land beyond a 2-shotok homestead; he sharecropped other people's fields and pulled a rickshaw when that did not feed the family. In 2007, on the agriculture department's advice, he planted kalomegh in the odd corners around his house, then sharecropped 1 bigha for basok, arjun and tulsi, which paid well enough that he took 3 bighas more and gave up rice altogether. He now grows on 4 bighas plus both sides of the road by his house, makes his own compost, and runs a nursery of 10,000 saplings with a collection point beside the house from which leaves, branches and saplings are sold. Large pharmaceutical companies buy the leaf and branches, and saplings go to Rangpur, Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Chattogram and Dinajpur as well as within Gaibandha. Annual sales come to about 15 lakh taka and net income to about 3 lakh, or 25,000 a month, and he plans 8 bighas next year. Around 30 farmers in the village have followed him, one earning an extra 5,000 taka a month from a bigha and another 4,000 from tulsi. Kalomegh costs about 15,000 taka a bigha, yields 20-22 maund and sells at 2,400 taka a maund; it cuts in six months, tulsi in 90 days, and basok yields for 8 to 10 years from one planting.