Zakir Hossain, a resident of Swajanpur village in Phulbari upazila of Dinajpur, has succeeded in growing date palm trees on his own land, thus paving the way for other youths in the area to grow the fruit.
Hussain started the venture after returning from Kuwait, hoping to find a better source of income, where he worked before opening an automobile repair shop with an investment of Rs 4 million.
Selling around 300 saplings from his farm for around Rs 1,000, he barely gets a sitting now.
Hossain said that when he went to Kuwait as a migrant worker in 1999, he had no interest in agriculture.
"But during my stay in Kuwait, I saw palm trees around, which encouraged me to learn how to grow them," he said.
Eventually, Hossain collected 12 kilograms (kg) of date palm seeds of various varieties, including Ajwa, Mariam, Anbara and Matzel, which he brought back to Bangladesh in 2017.
It took Hussain about a year and a half to grow 19 seedlings, which he planted on 20 acres of land in his village, before returning to Kuwait in early 2019.
But Hossain returned to Bangladesh in December that year, just before the outbreak of Covid-19. He soon found he could not return to Kuwait due to cross-border travel restrictions amid a global lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of the deadly pathogen.
Hussain tried repeatedly to return to Kuwait to run his business, but it eventually succumbed to the coronavirus.
"My garage was repossessed because I couldn't pay the rent and utility bills. So, I decided to focus on agriculture," he said, adding that two of his 19 palm trees will finally flower in February 2021.
And despite failing to yield at first, Hussain continued his efforts and now gets up to 300kg of dates from each of his four mature trees.
However, Hussain only sells seedlings produced from seeds from his previous crop.
While visiting Hussain's garden on Thursday, this reporter saw colorful date palms on four trees of different heights.
Zakir said each tree begins to flower within four to five years of planting, with each tree reaching a height of about 35 feet.
"The best fruit period is 75 years," he adds.
Pointing out how each palm tree requires a fraction of the land for proper growth, Hussain said, the monsoon season is February to March and July to August are the best times to harvest.
He said that dates can be left on the tree for six months without a crop.
But since it is an exotic plant species in the desert, it needs a lot of water. But other than that, the tree does not require more effort to care for than any other fruit bearing tree.
Hussain also said that he did not sell a single kilogram of dates from his garden as he saved them as seeds, which were sold to farmers who wanted to grow dates commercially.
Hussain is now preparing to expand his garden with an additional two acres of land.
A resident of Dinajpur's Bochaganj upazila collected 20 date palm seedlings from Biswanath Roy Hossain and another youth from his village took 24 seedlings.
The annual demand of dates in Bangladesh is about 90,000 metric tons.
According to the National Board of Revenue, demand is met by imports from countries including Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Sudan and Pakistan.
Demand is particularly high during the month of Ramadan, which accounts for 50 percent of annual imports.
And date palm cultivation is not uncommon in the country, Hussain said, adding that a large part of the annual demand could be met through local production if youths come forward to turn their land into date plantations.
KJM Abdul Awal, additional director of horticulture department of Agriculture Extension Department, said that foreign Middle Eastern varieties are cultivated on about six hectares of land in Bangladesh.
He said, "However, the people of the country are still interested in it as a fruit. However, as it is a Mediterranean fruit, it is not possible to cultivate it commercially due to high humidity in Bangladesh."
