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Young entrepreneur shows the way

Innovative and hard working Babul has made 10-acre bottle gourd farm at Hatiber jungle in Mymensingh's Bhaluka

Shykh Seraj
I have dreamt for a long time that the heroes of our country will come out of the villages. Today, you all can see the real growth of Bangladesh, mostly with the contribution from the rural people. We can't deny the role of the people, mostly from rural areas, who are working so hard abroad to boost up our remittance.
These rural people are working silently, yet quite effectively, for emergence of Bangladesh as one of the leading developing countries in the world.
To trigger this development process, young and educated entrepreneurs have joined in. They have taken farming to a different level by putting modern education and indigenous knowledge together. Through innovation and hard work, they have overcome family poverty and showed the way to many other prospective entrepreneurs. One of the finest examples of such success is young farmer Babul at Hatiber in Mymensigh's Bhaluka.
Beside the cultivation of aman paddy, Babul has raised bottle gourd plants on ten acres of land. Such an enormously large garden adorned with thousands of bottle gourds can hardly be seen elsewhere in the whole country. The innovative youth has worked with full courage and endeavour to make the initiative a success.
"I am from a very poor family. I had to overcome so many hurdles to complete my graduation," said Babul.
After completing formal education, a youth would generally try to get a job for a decent earning. But Babul did something through which he can earn as well as employ others.
"My dream is to eradicate poverty
out of my region," said a confident Babul.
Starting the work at Hatiber, a jungle area with wild animals, one year ago, Babul had to put much effort to turn the once uninhabited place a very resourceful one. He with the help of other locals cleaned up the place and with the assistance of family and local loan he started his bottle gourd farming.
Every other day Babul sends 1500 to 2000 bottle gourds to market.
This season he has already sold bottle gourds worth five lakh taka and hopes to get at least another eight lakh taka from selling the winter vegetable this year.
"The way I'm getting profits, I hope to repay the loan very soon, ” he says.
A better and flexible market system would further enhance the profit, said Babul, who plans to extend the area of bottle gourd cultivation in future.
Babul's college teacher Masud Rana has been with him from the very beginning. And, Babul is certainly an idol to the young people of his area.
Earlier the lion's share of the profit would go to the pocket of middlemen but now farmers are earning a lot better as the buyers come straight to the field and buy
fresh and healthy bottle gourds for good amounts, local farmers said. I saw smiles of accomplishment among Babul and other farmers at Hatiber as the popular winter vegetable has already started bringing them good earning.
Dear readers, the very idea of a young entrepreneur would usually make one imagine a privileged person from a city. But to me, the real entrepreneurs are young farmers like Babul who have fought hard throughout their life. They experimented and invented on their own. They faced crisis and tackled it quite boldly. And young entrepreneurs like Babul work not only for their own but for rest of the people around and for the country as a whole. Their success means the development of Bangladesh, its strong economy. I hope many others will come up with new ventures, being inspired by the success of people like Babul.