Gausul Azam is a successful agricultural entrepreneur at the age of 21

Rangpur entrepreneur Gausul Azam started his business at the age of 21 with the belief that there is potential in agriculture. In 2017, he started selling agricultural machinery online with pictures and videos. Krishi Bazar Limited, the company established by this entrepreneur, has sold agricultural machinery to more than 40,000 farmers in all districts of the country so far. This company sells more than 350 types of agricultural machinery and products.

Apart from this, Gausul Azam is cultivating maize and potatoes on contract basis in 1800 acres of land in four districts of the country. In all, 1 thousand 115 farmers are directly involved in this cultivation. Along with this, under the three projects of the government, as a private partner, more than eight thousand farmers have been trained in agriculture by the agricultural market organization 'Krishak School'.

Krishi Bazar is working as a manager of 129 farmers' farmer hubs or nurseries with the help of a private development organization or NGO. The agricultural market supplies all the ingredients including seeds and fertilizers to these farmers for the production of seedlings. This company also offers the service of selling the produced seedlings online.

From this year, Krishi Bazar has started making fuel products made from agricultural waste (wood powder, rice husk and corn stalks etc.). Which is named as 'Krishi Khadi'. This chalk can be used for home cooking. It will cost half less than natural gas for cooking. And made dewatering machine to make compost from dung. In total, this entrepreneur has a business of about 10 crore rupees. Gausul, who started his business at the age of 21, became a successful entrepreneur at the age of 29.

Start with zero investment

In 2014, Gausul Azam was admitted to Rangpur Polytechnic for Diploma in Electrical and Electrical Engineering (EEE). He was not given the final exam in 2017 due to lack of money. Then one day he participated in the training program at Grameenphone's 'GP Accelerator' in Gaibandha district. The intention was to get some money out of the training. But that training changed his perspective.

He met Iqbal Hossain in training. Iqbal Hossain, a resident of Mymensingh used to import 'hand reaper' (paddy or grain cutting machine) from China. After the introduction Gausul Azam also became interested in selling this agricultural machinery. From that interest, he took the initiative to sell the device by promoting the video of the device on social media Facebook. As it was the season of paddy harvesting at that time, he also received a huge response. Received first purchase order from Sylhet. He gained one and a half thousand rupees. In this way, he sold about 80 rice cutting machines by promoting videos on Facebook in a few months. Named the Facebook page Digital Marketing for Rural Enterprise. However, as this name is somewhat difficult, there was some problem in establishing contact with the farmer. So the name of the page was changed to Krishi Bazar.

At some point, the machine runs out of stock. So investors and importers started looking. Two investors were also found. At present there are 16 importers and investors in the agricultural market. Launched a new website called Krishi Bazar in 2018. At that time, Gausul Azam used to import hand-operated power tillers. Sold about 500 power tillers in a month. Then in 2018, he added his wife Razia Sultana to the business. Rangpur city in Radhavallav area took a room for rent office. In the beginning, a total of three people including husband and wife and another worker started together. Currently, total 55 employees are working in the company. Apart from this, there is a warehouse and sales center on 10 percent of the land in Radhavallav area.

Gausul Azam, entrepreneur and managing director of Krishi Bazar, said that the direct servicing service of the machine was launched in 2022 to expand the business. If necessary, the company provides video call services to customers. In all, agricultural machinery worth Tk 70 to 80 lakh is sold every month.

Startup 'Farmer's School'

In early 2024, Krishi Bazar started training farmers on agricultural machinery and modern agriculture under two schemes of the Directorate of Agricultural Marketing. The organization has trained more than eight thousand farmers under this project in the last one and a half years. Gausul Azam was serving as a private partner of this project in 2024. Later, the institution was added to another project of the government.

To serve the farmers, the agricultural market organ 'Krishak School' was launched. About four acres of land was taken on lease in Kadamtala market of Rangpur for this activity. This entrepreneur started an agricultural training and research center there. Gausul Azam said that the research center has been launched for hands-on training of farmers on good agriculture practices. In the future there are plans to create online videos on cultivation of 85 agricultural products from farmers' schools.

The hay and grass cutting machine that makes the work of farmers easier is called chopper machine. Entrepreneur Gausul Azmashvi standing in front of Krishi Bazar warehouse and product sales center in Radhaballav area of Rangpur city: Courtesy of Krishi Bazar

Potato and Maize Cultivation

By mid-2023, Krishi Bazar started contact farming or contract potato cultivation. Gausul Azam cultivated potatoes on 700 acres of land with 340 farmers of Jaldhaka area of ​​Nilphamari, Sebar. And in these three districts - Rangpur, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat - he cultivated corn on 1 thousand 48 acres of land with about 775 farmers.

Basically, processed potatoes (potato chips) are cultivated in these lands. Under contract farming, the agricultural market provides all kinds of services to farmers including seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Apart from this, this institution is also a guarantor for farmers to take loans. Currently, Krishi Bazar is providing this loan facility jointly with Dhaka Bank. And the agricultural market buys and sells corn from these farmers. This entrepreneur sells about seven crores worth of maize in the season.

Gausul Azam said, it is often heard that farmers are not making profit by producing crops. So we started contract farming. Since this year, we have been working on making 'Krishi Khadi' from agricultural waste (wood powder, rice husk, corn stalks etc.). This chalk will reduce the cost of cooking by 50 percent compared to gas cooking. Apart from this, we are making organic fertilizers through de-watering machines.