Reaping success from agri-equipment

When river erosion struck and Md Ole Ullah's lost his hearth and home, he had no alternative but to shift to another district. Starting anew, he then joined an engineering workshop and gained experience. And within four years, he opened a workshop of his own.

He started the workshop with the capital of only Tk 4000 and it is now one of the biggest manufacturers of agricultural machinery in the country, with annual sales reaching Tk 200 million.

Md Ole Ullah is from Kutubpur union in Chuadanga. He uses local material and technology to manufacture agricultural equipment. The prices of his machines are cheap and keeps agricultural costs low.

Ole Ullah has made 18 types of agricultural equipment so far, using foreign machineries as prototypes. He has 32 people working for him now and his success has serve others to take up manufacturing agricultural tools as well.

Starting days

Ole Ullah’s company, Janata Engineering, was established in 1992 and is located in Sarojganj Bazar of Chuadanga's Sadar upazila. He is known as ‘Ole Huzur’ in the area. Originally from Debidwar, Cumilla, he shifted to Chuadanga in 1988 after losing everything to river erosion. He was just 24 years old then and had been a day labourer. He then began working in Islam Mechanic in Sarojganj Bazar.

He learnt how to build and repair machines and within four years decided to establish his own factory. He has not looked back ever since.

Janata Engineering has grown over the years and is now one of the leading establishments in agricultural technology and machineries.

It manufactures 18 types of agricultural equipment including machines to sow seeds, combined harvesters, straw and grass cutting machines, potato planting and reaping machines and so on. And 16 of these machines are always in demand. The company has 50 dealers around the country.

Ole said a combined harvester normally costs from Tk 1.2 million to Tk 2.8 million. However, the combined harvester manufactured by his factory costs only Tk 600,000 to Tk 700,000.

A day at Janata Engineering

Ole Ullah is the managing director of Janata Engineering and has two factories. A third factory is on the way. He said the cost of the agricultural machines will further decrease once his third factory starts production. The farmers will be able to buy quality machines at cheap prices.

Janata Engineering would make only paddle threshers till 2010. These would separate chaff from paddy. Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) assisted Janata Engineering to make the machine that year.

Janata Engineering and BRRI in 2015 jointly using local agricultural machinery for cultivation. This cost Tk 700,000, which would have been Tk 1.5 million if imported machines were used.

By 2015, Janata Engineering started expanding its market to Khulna and Barishal divisions. They started countrywide distribution by 2016. SME foundation awarded Ole as the best small entrepreneur of on 3 March this for overcoming poverty to become a successful entrepreneur.

Speaking at the Janata Engineering head office on Wednesday, Ole said, “We don’t just make machines. We have trained 220 people to make machines in 45 workshops. It is true that we lack institutional knowledge, however, we have learned a lot from our experience.”

Farmers and businessmen

Farmer Mahbubur Rahman bought a seeder, a rice reaper, and a drum thresher machine for threshing paddy from Ole. He rents out the machines after his own use. Mahboob said, “I bought the three machines from Ole for Tk 95,000. The same machine from a different company would have cost me Tk 170,000. Ole Huzur is a good man, well reputed in this area. He repairs the machines himself if there is any problem.”

Owner of Mim Engineering workshop of Sarojganj Bazar area, Milon Mia said, “Ole Huzur taught me everything while I was working in his factory. Now I own a factory myself.”

Inspired by Ole’s success, at least 86 entrepreneurs from Jhenidah and Meherpur are manufacturing and distributing agricultural machineries. Most of them earlier worked at Ole’s factor.

Ole himself manufactures 70 per cent spare parts for the agricultural equipment and imports the rest. Ole has a dream of making machines entirely using local parts.
Additional deputy director of the department of agriculture extension, Sufi M Rafiquzzaman said, the reasonably priced agricultural machinery for the farmers from Ole has a positive impact on agriculture.