Agriculture is the largest employment sector in Bangladesh with close to 50 percent of the total population being primarily engaged in this sector. With more than 70 percent of its land dedicated to growing crops, agriculture remains the dominant sector in Bangladesh. To boost this industry, the government’s Agricultural Extension department is working tirelessly by helping the farmers with necessary support and information. One bright example in this front is Mr. Talha Zubair Masror, who has created a new wave of enthusiasm among Bangladeshi farmers by utilizing his creativity beyond his work field. Apart from his institutional identity, he is globally known as the Founder and Director of Krishi Bioscope. As a recognition of his talents, he was recently awarded the prestigious Bangabandhu National Agricultural Award.
Talha Zubair Masror is a young officer from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), currently working under the Ministry of Agriculture as an Agriculture Officer at Chuadanga in the South-Western part of Bangladesh. He was born in Kushtia. After completing his SSC from Kushtia Zilla School and HSC from Kushtia Government College, he moved to Khulna University to complete his Bsc in Agrotechnology. He completed his master’s in Horticulture Science from Bangladesh Agriculture University, Mymensingh.
He was recruited from the 29th BCS and started as an agricultural extension officer in 2011. He became well known for his immense contribution to every aspect of agricultural extension. Till now he has visited the United States, Thailand, Vietnam to attend seminars and to get hands-on experiences.
His wife Mrs. Afrin Binte Aziz is also an agriculture officer, who is working towards creating women entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector. For their immense contribution, both of them were elected for the Cornell University global leadership fellow program 2019, where they completed a special course alongside change-makers from 15 different countries.
Mr. Talha has become a popular figure as a YouTuber among the local and global agriculture fans. To extend agricultural technology through various social media and digital platforms, he initiated Krishi Bioscope in 2016. Since the inception of the YouTube channel, it has gained 535 thousand followers and over 65.2 million views from the 240 videos the channel uploaded. The Facebook page of Krishi Bioscope has also received millions of followers. Every day countless people are getting help through this platform, connecting to successful farmers and starting their journey, expanding the enthusiasm to all across the country.
Krishi Bioscope’s goal is to showcase successful agricultural entrepreneurs and highlight their stories through social media and motivate aspiring young entrepreneurs to contribute to this sector. It is a completely nonpolitical, nonprofit, and volunteer initiative. Apart from making educational videos, it also hosts workshops, seminars, motivational tours and online talk shows to make people more eager about agriculture and agricultural entrepreneurship. It aims to build a bridge between entrepreneurs, farmers, and innovators that are related to agriculture. The videos are created to educate farmers, agricultural entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts by presenting hands-on training on modern technology, pest control, maintaining soil health, and technical training required for farmer’s success.
What makes Krishi Bioscope unique is the hosting of Talha Zubair Masror himself and his vast knowledge from the field experience as an agriculture officer for which it is effortless for him to suggest and direct the farmers on the right path. Besides that, it is making a mass audience interested to invest in agriculture by educating them about valuable crops and which cultivation will benefit the most. Thanks to social media, these videos are accessible all over the world. The videos of Krishi Bioscope teach many technical aspects which are benefitting the enthusiasts on the field. Nowadays, most of the agricultural offices are using these videos to train the farmers as well as sharpen their skills.
Krishi Bioscope has become the platform for the educated youth who are interested in investing in agriculture. It is also hosting many workshops to grow their knowledge and expertise in this field. Many young entrepreneurs come to Chuadanga every Friday and Saturday to get hands-on experiences from the workshops arranged by Krishi Bioscope.
Initially, it had a plan of educating 500 agricultural entrepreneurs, and till now, it has trained 165 people in over 60 districts. Honorable Agricultural Minister Dr. Md. Abdur Razzaque, Director-General of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Director-General of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, and other renowned researchers and specialists not only encouraged these young entrepreneurs but also trained them. With all these, it has become the ideal digital agricultural institution for the educated youth. Even after the training, they are connected digitally, expanding the network all over the country.
As an agriculture officer, Talha Zubair Masror has successfully made Chuadanga a prominent place for agricultural diversity. Some of his initiatives like forming farmer organizations, establishing an agriculture library, vegetable cultivation at households, water-efficient Aush paddy cultivation and corn cultivation helped farmers in many ways. Not only did he expand the possibility of agricultural extension but also enabled the pathway for the farmers to get the complete benefits of Digital Bangladesh. He also took various initiatives to promote safe cultivation and thanks to his guidance, the excessive misuse of insecticide is significantly decreased, and farmers are getting highly benefited with the increased production.
For his incredible contribution to his workplace, he was awarded the Bangabandhu National Agricultural Award. He was also awarded a gold medal on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Independence and 100 years of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. His brilliant contribution towards agricultural extension was awarded as it paves the path towards fulfilling Bangabandhu’s dream. Previously, he was awarded VSO-Prothom Alo volunteer (agriculture) in 2019 and was elected the best government officer in the Khulna division (2017) in a program hosted by a2i.
To establish a hunger-free world, on the occasion of their 5th anniversary, the international organization, Cornell Alliance for Science from the United States selected 5 people who have put their relentless effort into bringing a change in global agriculture. Among the 5, Talha Zubair Masror was nominated, which is a great honor for the entire nation. We wish him every success in his future endeavours.
