About · English
Author & Agro Tourism Entrepreneur · Bagail, Bogura, Bangladesh
After thirteen years building other people's brands in Dhaka, Jobair Islam went back to the soil. Six years and twelve failed farming plans later, he co-founded Sukher Khamar—Bangladesh's first planned, community-based agro tourism project—and wrote five books about what he learned.
Story
Born in 1985 in a remote village in Sirajganj, Jobair grew up with paddy fields as his playground. He spent nineteen years in Dhaka, thirteen of them in branding, marketing and public relations, building other people's stories—and learning that a story is the biggest capital there is.
In 2016 he turned to farming, driven more by emotion than arithmetic. Between 2016 and 2022 twelve farming plans failed and he lost one million taka. He wrote every mistake down—with dates, numbers and reasons. That notebook became his first farming book, Shunno Theke Krishi Uddokta.
This time he came back with a ledger, not just a dream. He moved to Bagail in Kahaloo, Bogura, and with Tasdikh Habib co-founded Sukher Khamar: one of them knew the market, the other had come to know the soil. Today the farm hosts visitors from across the country, and its agro village is under construction.
His long-term vision is for every division of Bangladesh to have a Sukher Khamar, for a million new agricultural entrepreneurs, and for a generation that looks at the village and says, “that is the destination.”
Twelve plans failed between 2016 and 2022. Six of them are written up in full—with dates, numbers and reasons—in Shunno Theke Krishi Uddokta. These are the lessons, in short.
| Year | What was tried | What it taught |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | A fifty-thousand-taka red bull | A dream and a spreadsheet are not the same thing. |
| 2016 | Two cows handed out on shares | Without control of your own business, invested money and rubbish are the same thing. |
| 2017 | Rice and potato farming | Expecting free labour is a sin—and you have to turn up. Farming is not passive income. |
| 2018 | A goat farm that never left the meeting room | Analysis paralysis. Never take on a partner who cannot give the work time. |
| 2019 | Sharecropping with an experienced farmer | The owner’s own eye is the best fertiliser. |
| 2020 | The shock of the pandemic | A crisis is an opportunity—the safe-food idea began in his mother’s vegetable patch. |
Work
Bangladesh's first planned, community-based agro tourism project, in Bagail, Kahaloo, Bogura—where farming is also an experience for visitors and part of the local economy. Jobair is co-founder of Sukher Khamar and managing director of Sukher Khamar Agro Limited.
Registered as RAJS-563/2026, the foundation channels the project's gains back to people: women's livelihoods, support for families, medical help and long-term village infrastructure. Jobair serves as its General Secretary.
The farm was the start; the village is the goal. What now stands in Bagail—work, income, safe water and visitors arriving from outside—is a working sample of a village economy. The aim is to carry that sample to Bangladesh's 90,000 villages: one Sukher Khamar in every division, and a Sukher Gram around it.
In his own words
Ten lines he comes back to, translated from the Bengali.
The most valuable thing in my life is called a mistake.
We want to grow more than crops from the soil—we want to grow a future.
A cow understands fodder and arithmetic—not sentiment.
The village is a product in itself. It stayed cheap only because nobody looked at it; the day we do, it becomes precious.
The second best time to start is today.
A product sells on price; an experience sells on love.
Arriving together matters more than finishing first alone.
In honest earnings, even a little carries blessing.
Whoever writes a mistake down never makes it twice.
Make the dream bigger—the effort costs the same.
Books
All five are in Bengali. Two were published under the name Jobair Rubel.
Shunno Theke Krishi UddoktaFrom Zero to Agri-Entrepreneur — his twelve failures and the comeback
Agro Tourism — Gram-i GontobboThe Village Is the Destination — with Tasdikh Habib
Productive Happiness with IslamOn a purposeful, blessed life
Mindfulness MeditationFor a healthy body and mind
Unlock Your Inner MillionaireA manual for the mind's real potentialWriting
Beyond the books, Jobair writes almost daily about farming arithmetic, the notebook of mistakes, village life and agro tourism. All of it is in Bengali.
Two letters a month—dust from the farm, the writing desk and whatever is being built next. No spam, nothing for sale.
Speaking
Jobair speaks at companies, universities and conferences about agro tourism, entrepreneurship and building a community. Talks are usually in Bengali; English is possible on request.
Recognition
For journalists and organisers
Short and long biographies in English and Bengali, five high-resolution photographs, the five book covers and the Sukher Khamar logo—in one ZIP file.
Please confirm event-specific titles with us before publishing.
Contact