Engineer Nayeem leaves his job and freelancing to pursue agriculture.In the field stands a Malta (orange) orchard. Most of the trees are laden with yellow-colored Malta fruits. Between rows of trees, vermicompost (worm compost) is being produced in beds. This compost is being supplied to various parts of the country.
This modern vermicompost farm inside a fruit orchard can be seen in Baikunthapur village of Chirirbandar upazila in Dinajpur. The entrepreneur behind the farm is Nayeem Huda (32), son of Fazlur Rahman.
Using several methods—including beds, tubs, and ring systems—Nayeem produces 25–30 tons of vermicompost every month. Alongside this, he has planted Malta, orange, mango, and litchi on six bighas of land. He also sells organic pesticides. Fish farming is carried out in a pond adjacent to the farm. On the pond embankment, he has planted betel nut, Malta, year-round mango, and jackfruit trees. Vegetables are cultivated on trellises nearby. After expenses, Nayeem earns between 200,000 and 250,000 taka per month from all these activities. Farmers, entrepreneurs, agricultural officers, and general visitors crowd the farm every day to see it.
How Nayeem Started
In 2016, Naim Huda completed his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from a private university in Dhaka. The following year, he began his career at Nilphamari EPZ. Alongside his job, he also worked as a freelancer. However, considering the time and labor required, the salary was relatively low. After a few months, he quit the job and focused entirely on freelancing. In 2020, his freelancing work declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nayeem says, “After quitting my job, I had to hear many things from my family. I thought I should start something that would last as long as the world exists. With that thought, I focused on agriculture.”
In 2020, he began farming on one bigha of ancestral land beside his house by planting QJ mango and China-3 litchi orchards. The same year, he planted Malta, orange, lemon, and papaya on another four bighas of land. While doing this, he realized that fertilizer costs in agriculture were comparatively high.
He says, “I came into agriculture with the idea of producing safe food, but I had to buy a lot of fertilizer and pesticides. On the advice of the Upazila Agriculture Officer, I took training and started producing vermicompost at home using 10 rings and several plastic tubs.”
Gradually, Nayeem began to see the benefits of using organic fertilizer. He visited agricultural farms in different areas. Eventually, he started producing more compost than he needed. He began selling it to local farmers at 12–15 taka per kilogram. Later, he collected cow dung from nearby farms and started full-scale compost production.
Currently, using 40 rings, more than 50 tubs, and 55 beds, Nayeem’s farm produces 25–30 tons of compost every month. He stores the compost in a designated warehouse next to the farm. In addition to retail sales, he supplies compost to agricultural farms in nearby districts as well as Tangail, Cumilla, Sylhet, Mymensingh, and Khulna. With the slogan “Always beside the farmer,” he has established Nayeem Organic Agro.
Golden Dreams in the Malta Orchard
Over the past seven years of working in agriculture, Nayeem Huda has practically become a researcher. Currently, his mixed fruit orchard has over 700 Malta trees. In 2023, the trees bore fruit for the first time, but he did not harvest them. The following year, he harvested around 70 maunds of Malta, but the fruits were green instead of yellow, resulting in a poor price. In 2024, following advice from the Agriculture Department and an orchard owner from Thakurgaon, he adopted the “root pruning” method. That year, the Malta fruits turned yellow.
A recent visit to Nayeem’s Malta orchard shows yellow fruits peeking through green leaves on small trees. The juicy, sweet-and-sour Maltas are relatively large in size. Bamboo supports have been placed under branches bending under the weight of the fruits. Locals visit the orchard daily, taking photos.
Fourteen workers—both men and women—are employed at the farm. Some are harvesting Malta and packing them into crates; others are turning dung mixtures in the compost beds. Some are netting with machines, while others are drying compost in the yard. A permanent building beside the pond serves as an office and sales center. Nayeem said he has trained over 500 youths to become entrepreneurs over the past few years and has supplied earthworms to many interested individuals.
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Shamsuddin Alam, a visitor to the farm, said, “I knew Malta as an imported fruit. It has been cultivated in our country for a few years, but the fruits were green. This is the first time I’ve seen yellow Malta fruits directly on trees.”
Naim said that not all trees bore fruit this year, but the fruit size has increased. Relatively fewer pesticides were used. He expects to harvest at least 250–280 maunds of Malta this season and hopes to sell them wholesale at 170–180 taka per kilogram.
Farmers’ Trust in Organic Pesticides
Nayeem did not stop at vermicompost alone. He also sells solid microbial fertilizer made from cow urine, molasses, chickpea flour, and soil. He produces and sells juice made from ten types of leaves, including neem, mahogany, bael, custard apple, dhutura, and castor leaves. This helps resolve nutrient deficiencies in crops. His sales center also offers powdered eggshells, snail shells, dried fish, tobacco powder, and oil cakes made from peanut, neem, coconut, and sesame. Using these ingredients, his farm produces Trichoderma compost fertilizer.
Local farmer Ershad Ali said, “Fertilizer and pesticide prices are very high in the market. Agricultural officers repeatedly encourage the use of organic fertilizers. Many of us in the area have been using organic fertilizer regularly for years. This has reduced costs and improved yields.”
At one point, Nayeem’s father, Fazlur Rahman, was unhappy when his son left his job for farming. Now, seeing his success, he is pleased. He keeps track of his son’s work, spends time at the farm, and talks with farmers at the sales center.
Fazlur Rahman said, “At one time I scolded my son, but today the farm stands strong because of his effort and hard work. Every day, 10–12 people work here.” He believes educated youths should come forward in agriculture.
Regarding Nayeem Huda’s initiative, Chirirbandar Upazila Agriculture Officer Johra Sultana said that the use of vermicompost has increased in the upazila over the past few years, reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers. There is no alternative to vermicompost for safe food production and soil health conservation. Currently, Nayeem’s farm is the largest vermicompost production farm in the district.
Source: The daily Prothom Alo
