1. How did the idea of Nagarkrishi came to your mind? What was the initial journey like?

We started Nagarkrishi back in 2016. Back then my brother and two of his friends were studying at Sher- e Bangla Agriculture University. Since they studied agriculture they know the basics of firming. One day they came to me and ask a favor. They want me to invest in their experimental rooftop farm. 

We were actually experimenting and wanted to see what the things could be possible doing on the rooftop. We also grew capsicums, dragon fruits, cucumbers, carrots over there. When we saw good results on vegetables I invested in it and my brother and his friends used to take care of it. One day after a month or two, they invited me to the rooftop and I went there. I was amazed by seeing the results. So it was a wonderful experience. We thought if we can grow this from our rooftop we can definitely grow from other people’s places and that is how our business model came up. We started thinking there must be some reason that people did not start doing it on their rooftop. 

We tried to identify the reason and found some barriers. One barrier was that many people do not have enough time and they were busy with their life. Another barrier is that many don’t have access to their rooftop because not everyone owns the entire apartment. Another one is many people do not have proper knowledge about farming. Insufficient equipment also was a problem and not having enough knowledge about the good quality seeds and about its sourcing. Then we thought about how we will offer all those solutions because we know a good business can only stand out when it can offer the best solution. We started offers like since you have an empty rooftop we can help you to get it ready. Or else if you want it to do by yourself we can support you with good quality seeds or natural fertilizer. So for that, we developed our own product and anyone can simply order it online and get it delivered at home. Also, we offer partial support like expert gardener service. Our gardener will visit the farm and will take care of the plants. For those who don’t have access to their rooftop they can produce herbs on their balcony. So we are offering a 360-degree solution. These are the solutions we introduced that came from our research. 

We know that many people like Nagarkrishi for its approach but the business is still struggling as the market isn’t ready yet. If you see Canada, Netherlands or any other developed countries you will see rooftop farming, urban gardening are very common phenomena. Community farming is very popular over there. In our country, the practice has not started yet but we are hopeful and we have many interested people. The government is also supporting and promoting urban farming. They have recently announced 10% holding tax off for people who have rooftop gardens/farms. Our Prime minister herself encouraged everyone for farming.  people  appreciate it. 

2. What services is Nagarkrishi currently providing the customers?

We have gardening and farming packages that anyone can customize. As I mentioned if anyone wants to do gardening by themselves they can just have the products from us. Besides that, we ensure damp proofing and proper drainage channels as safety is our prime priority

We also provide the expert gardener service where one of our experts monitor the garden once a week and advise accordingly. 

We are selling soil, seeds and other ingredients related to farming through our website, facebook and instagram page. 

On a bigger scale, we are helping in gardening, farming, and landscaping. We do both residential and industrial landscaping. For residential if someone is interested in carpeting with natural grass on the balcony or rooftop we can provide it. 

Now we are not working only in Dhaka. Besides Dhaka, we started our landscaping projects in areas like Faridpur, Chittagong, Barisal, Mymensingh, etc. And we are working with the Government as well. We are working with some city corporations and the Upazila complex.  

3. Walk us through the procedures or steps while setting up a garden.

First, you must have to ensure the proper drainage system. Without proper draining, it will hamper both the plants and buildings. The next step is identifying what type of garden you want. Many people want to have a vegetable garden and get some fresh vegetables from their own farm. Some of them want to have a garden with flowers and they just want to enjoy their tea or coffee over there. Besides that many like to have both. That is also possible. So in short, the first step is to ensure proper draining, then your preference to set up the way you want, and later the important part is to know how to take care of it. We can help them at each stage and besides that, if anyone faces a problem and requires any help they can call us or send the queries, and based on their needs we can provide help to them.

4. What projects or awareness programs are being carried out to curb global warming and encourage more tree plantation?

As I mentioned earlier that Nagarkrishi is still struggling and the business is still not there where it has to be. Here we have invested our time, money and effort not only for a good business but our purpose is to contribute to the world. In Dhaka city, you won’t see sufficient trees out there. All you can see are buildings. An average grown person needs a minimum of 8 trees to live properly. If we talk about that the number of trees is not out there. But all the rooftops are empty. So if you monitor our work properly you will find all our priority is to create a green environment. Whatever work we are doing is making our city a little greener and we are trying to encourage people to plant more and more trees. Besides that, we have an initiative called Little farmers. Here what we do is we provide workshops to the little kids about farming. We trained them about various plants and seeds and also shared the thoughts of why the tree is so important. We jointly do it with different schools. They invite us and we conduct the session on their premises. Also, we have our office rooftop firm where parents can bring their children by registration. Kids can spend time with plants and we teach them how to firm. All these are fun projects and kids enjoy doing them. All we want is if any of these kids can come into farming and innovate something new in the future. We want to plant the idea of a greener future in the new generation which is the dream Nagarkrishi is made of because we grew up amidst greenery so we know how it feels. Coming in Dhaka one of the saddening part was there are no trees, which gave us the urge to initiate something like Nagarkrishi

5. How has the pandemic affected your activities? What challenges and opportunities came out of it?

We are passing an uncertain time. We are stuck at home, bored and it is a mental stress for everyone. Gardening can help release stress. Some doctors in developed countries prescribe gardening for people who are suffering from mental health disorder. A lot of people started doing it recently and we have been receiving many queries online. We used to provide them all the support online. Other than that all our activities were paused but the office remains open. Because you know none of our work can be done from work from home. All we can do is advise without any service charge. After the second stage of the pandemic, things are now getting better. So hopefully we can start again in full like before. 

6. How has the response been so far among the general public and share some memorable experiences of your journey?

We have received very good responses from every sector and that is the reason I think we are sustaining despite having so many challenges. No matter if people received any support from us or not everyone appreciates our Initiatives. And still, they are encouraging us. One interesting thing I like to share from our Little farmer campaign is that we usually provide all the equipment’s plants and etc. to the kids and they can do their planting work from home. When any new leaf comes to grow up from the plants they feel so excited and they show it to their parents. Their parents also felt happy and texted us about the experience and their kid’s joy with us. So these are the moments we actually feel happy about our work. It gives us pride that we are somehow able to share our dreamwork with others.

7. Tell us about your team in brief.

Our team consists of expert agriculturists, landscape architects, skilled and expert gardeners, and some technical experts who do the procurements, client service, marketing and maintain our social media channels. We have some partner organizations who are supporting us. We also hire people on a project basis whenever a new project is around. 

8. What is the ultimate vision of Nagarkrishi?

Our main goal is to make our cities more green and livable. For that we want to continue developing new products from Nagarkrishi. We are planning to introduce new technology in farming and want to build entrepreneurship opportunities for young entrepreneurs.