Shah Nursery, the largest and the most resourceful nursery of Jhenidah by the side of the Naboganga river attracts the nursery owners, agriculture firms and tree lovers of Bangladesh. Md. Dr. Shaiful Islam, son of Adv. Golam Mozid of Sharabaria village under sadar upazila established this nursery in 2007 at the cost of Tk 2.15 lakh on 4.57 decimals of land. At present he is the president of Bangladesh Nursery Samity. He visited around 40 countries in his pursuit to collect rare species of trees. Shah Nursery is playing a vital role in producing quality plants from mother trees and supplying them to many parts of Bangladesh.

Dr. Shaiful Islam

Dr. Shaiful Islam has nurtured his childhood love and hobby for trees and has eventually created this massive nursery on nearly 5 acres of land at Mothurapur village of Kannadah union in Harinakundu upazila. He brought mother trees from BARI, Bangladesh Agriculture University Mymenshingh (BAU) and some horticulture centres and tested the fruits of the mother trees in his own nursery. Then he began to distribute them. "There are around 50 species of mother fruit trees, 50 species of fruit plants, 100 species of flower bearing plants, 24 species of woody plants and about 100 species of medicinal plants in the nursery now," said Shariful Islam, Manager of Shah Nursery. Five workers take care of the nursery, of them, one is the manager, one caretaker, one waterman and two night guards. 

Dr. Rahim, a teacher of BAU, visits the nursery every three months and supervises the activities there. Plants of various species from the Shah Nursery are sold every year around the country; many government officials also take plants from the nursery, sources said.

Shaiful, who completed his PhD in Horticulture Nursery Management from USA is also the President of National Nursery Society (NNS) comprising of 15,000 owners of nurseries across the country. He is also a member of the standing committee of National Technology Project (NATP) of the World Bank in Bangladesh. Mr. Islam said they had supplied quality plants to nearly 150 nurseries in Bangladesh over the years. The Swiss government is providing the NNS with funds, and they are expecting to get financial assistance from the Netherlands government very soon as well. Shaiful mentioned that there is no separate ministry of horticulture, or a university of horticulture in our country while in India, there is a separate ministry for horticulture. "In other countries, lemon orchards are made on hills, and I wish to buy lands on the hills and make a big lemon garden there," he said. Shaiful has a plan to establish a private agriculture university near his nursery in the future.

An elderly man, Siraj Uddin Mondol of Sharabaria village said that Dr. Shaiful Islam is concerned about the betterment of the local people. Hundreds of traders throng at the nursery during the rainy season to collect fruit saplings. The nursery is famous and enriched in a variety of saplings. The sales of the nursery was about 14 lakh taka in 2014. The nursery often distributes plants to the needy and underprivileged people every year for free.