KALAPARA, PATUAKHALI, Aug 17: A successful dragon fruit entrepreneur Md Mostafa Zaman of Kankunipara Village at Baliatali Union in Kalapara Upazila of the district is expanding his farm with new species.
He is earning every day from fruit sale. He is also making co-cropping.
Mostafa became success in commercial dragon cultivation in 2018 despite many adversities. He had started his dragon entrepreneurship in 2012 with framing the popular fruit on four acres of his land.
While talking with this correspondent of The Daily Observer, Mostafa said, he has made his dragon farm a combined orchard having banana, litchi, guava, malta, papaya, and cardamom. His orchard also included fish enclosure, cow and local poultry farm.
Seeing his success cases, others in different unions have raised dragon orchards.
He further said, Vietnam Dragon (BARI-1), local varieties of red, white, yellow and rosy are giving fruits. The red dragon holds highest market demand.
At present, he has collected nine more new varieties of dragon.
Banana varieties, such as Sagor, Agnisagor, and Sobri are available at his farm. In the beginning, Patuakhali Horticulture Office and Upazila Department of Agriculture (DAE) assisted him in raising the orchard.
It took about Tk 2 lakh at the first phase. No chemical fertiliser and insecticide were applied to the farm. The farm started yielding within eight months. After the sale of fruits, he first saw the face of profit.
He is now bagging profits of lakh of Taka.
According to field sources, the DAE is also providing all types of technical assistance to new entrepreneurs. Employments are being created for workless youths.
Upazila DAE Officer and Agriculturist ARM Saifullah said, dragon is a popular fruit. Under a project, seven dragon gardens have been raised in the upazila. Of these, the garden of Mostafa is notable. "We're providing him with all types of assistance," he added.
