Shamima successfully cultivates dragon fruit

Shamima Akhter has become the first officially recognised female agri-entrepreneur by cultivating dragon fruit successfully in Taraganj upazila of Rangpur district.

Shamima at her house in Rahimapur Khansaheb Para village of Kursha union in Taraganj upazila said her father Shamsul Quader Sarkar is a successful farmer.

“From an early age, I became interested in my father’s agricultural work alongside my studies,” she said.

Her father has won various agricultural awards at the Rangpur district level including the best farmer of Taraganj upazila for cultivating agricultural crops and fish.

She got married to engineer Farid Uddin in 1995. After her marriage, she went on a trip to Vietnam.

“After going to Vietnam and eating dragon fruit there, I decided to cultivate dragon fruit at home. I came back and started collecting ideas from different people about dragon fruit cultivation,” she said.

Shamima first took advice from her father in the early days of making a big dragon orchard.

“I started gardening in 2016 by planting about 600 dragon fruit saplings on 55 decimals of land given to me by my father. The saplings grow slowly but superbly as they were cared for properly,” she said.

The female agri-entrepreneur says that each tree bears 50-60 dragon fruits a year. Each of the moderate and big sized dragon fruit weighs between 600 to 700 grams.

“The big-sized dragon fruit sells at a rate between Tk 700 to 1000 per kg,” she said, adding the fruit has a huge demand in local markets and aristocrat hotels and restaurants in the capital city.

Shamima said, “Many people from different districts come to me to get ideas about dragon fruit cultivation. I inspire them to cultivate dragon fruit adopting the latest technologies and proper agronomic management,” she said.

Many people are cultivating dragon fruit on their roofs of houses and courtyards in the area now.

Taraganj Upazila Agriculture Officer Agriculturist Urmi Tabassum said, “We are providing the latest technologies and cooperating with Shamima for farming dragon fruit adopting scientific methods.”