A 20,000-taka NGO loan, and 40,000 seedlings sold in three months

This 40-year-old from Agachatra village in Chatra union, Pirganj, Rangpur, studied to class eight and has no cultivable land of his own. He used to buy seedlings from other people's nurseries to resell in the market, which barely fed the family. After seeing a video on raising seedlings without soil, he took a 20,000-taka loan from a local NGO in 2020 and set 40,000 seedlings in plastic trays and cups filled with sterilised water hyacinth and coconut coir in place of earth; three months later they sold for 40,000 taka. He leases 25 shotok for 15,000 taka a year. This season he set 4 lakh seedlings of brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, chilli and tomato on that same 25 shotok at a cost of about 4 lakh taka; 26 days in, 1 lakh taka worth had already been sold, and he expects 7 lakh taka of sales and at least 3 lakh taka of profit within a month and a half - a projection, not money already earned. Each seedling costs about 1 taka 20 paisa to raise and sells at up to 2 taka. Seeds sprout within a week and seedlings are saleable at 20-22 days, once they are 5 or 6 inches tall. Buyers come to the nursery, retail and wholesale alike; he has built a tin house and now holds 7 to 8 lakh taka of working capital. Ready-made cocopeat sells at 22 taka a kilo in Rangpur.