Lipi Khatun was born with the blood of a farmer coursing through her veins, having helped her parents both out in the field and with the household chores as well. Once she got married, she learnt the essentials of homestead vegetable gardening from her mother-in-law, but lack of savings meant she could not afford to scale-up her farming work.

To realise Lipi’s dreams and grant her the life of dignity she deserved, she was selected as a member of UTTARAN’s livelihood stream. As a livelihood stream member, she received an interest-free loan of BDT 10,000 and a grant of BDT 10,000. Given her long-standing experience in farming, Lipi was nominated to receive an agricultural loan per her skill sets and area of interest.

Lipi embarked on her journey as a dragon fruit farmer, employing modern and innovative cultivation methods. From preparing the land to planting the seeds – applying the right, scientific farming practices helped in transforming the tiny seeds into a small farm, which, she hoped, would yield dragon fruit this coming harvesting season. Refusing to bow down to defeat under any circumstance, Lipi is now confident about getting a yield of dragon fruits worth up to BDT 100,000. Her expansion plans for her farm seemed to go together with the size of her dreams.