Shykh Seraj Initiative · A Non-Profit Organisation · Bangladesh

The Voiceof the Soil

Founded by Shykh Seraj and a group of young people, the Shykh Seraj Initiative empowers farmers and works to make safe, healthy food the right of every person — transforming agricultural data into food security through Big Data, Machine Learning and AI.

About the Initiative → Our Programmes

45+

Years giving voice to the soil

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Mati O Manush ·Hridoye Mati O Manush ·Krishi Budget Krishoker Budget ·Chhad Krishi ·Farmers' Health Service ·Grow Green ·Returning to Roots ·Krishoker Eid Ananda · Mati O Manush ·Hridoye Mati O Manush ·Krishi Budget Krishoker Budget ·Chhad Krishi ·Farmers' Health Service ·Grow Green ·Returning to Roots ·Krishoker Eid Ananda ·

01Our Founder & Chairman

Shykh Seraj portrait

Shykh Seraj amid greenery

Son of the Soil

The architect of development journalism in Asia.

Born on the mighty banks of the Meghna river in Chandpur and raised in Dhaka, Shykh Seraj completed his Honours and Master's in Geography at the University of Dhaka before turning his attention to the nation's most pressing concern — food production and rural empowerment.

His career began in the 1970s at Bangladesh Television. In 1982 he created and presented Mati O Manush (Soil & People), Bangladesh's first and longest-running agricultural television series — turning ordinary farmers into national figures.

BornChandpur, Bangladesh

EducationM.Sc. Geography, DU

RoleFounder Director, Channel i

FoundedImpress Telefilm (1996)

02The Initiative

From a life's work, a lasting institution.

The Shykh Seraj Initiative was founded by Shykh Seraj together with a group of young people — a not-for-profit organisation established to ensure healthy and safe food through the empowerment of farmers, carrying his life's work forward as an enduring institution.

Our Vision

Safe and healthy food, as the right of every person.

Our Mission

A better world built through healthy and safe food.

To advance agriculture, health, and farmer empowerment through research and innovation — transforming agricultural data into food security, and making safe food a right, not a privilege.

01

Empower the Farmer

Helping and encouraging farmers directly to produce safe, healthy food at the source.

02

Data, ML & AI

Transforming agricultural data into food security — harnessing Big Data, Machine Learning and AI for smarter, climate-resilient farming.

03

Economy & Exports

Raising the quality of local produce to strengthen agricultural exports and the national economy.

04

Society & the SDGs

Empowering 300,000+ women farmers, advancing agro-insurance, education for farmers' children, and family health — advancing the SDGs.

The Founding Board

SS

Shykh Seraj

Chairman

SS

Shahana Seraj

Director

SA

Md. Shafiul Alam

Director

TC

Tania Taharima Chowdhary

Director

SS

Saqif Seraj

Director

AA

Amreen Ahmed

Director

AS

Ashiq Seraj

Director

Section 28 · Non-Profit

Companies Act, 1994 · Dhaka

A company limited by guarantee — all income is applied solely to its objectives, with no profit distributed to members.

03Measurable Impact

When the media speaks for the soil,
an entire nation listens.

Years of development journalism

M+

Followers on Facebook

M

YouTube subscribers · Gold Creator Award

K+

Farmers heard in budget dialogues

K+

Women farmers empowered

Districts reached by Grow Green

K+

Farmers given free health service

+

Episodes of Hridoye Mati O Manush

M+

Employed in poultry & fisheries he championed

Agro-
insurance

Championed for farmers' climate & crop resilience

Figures compiled from official professional profiles and public reporting. Social-media metrics reflect the most recent published figures and continue to grow.

04A Nation Transformed

Bangladesh agriculture, 1980–2026.

From a famine-scarred “bottomless basket” at independence, Bangladesh became one of the world’s great food-security success stories — tripling rice output while feeding a population that more than doubled. For four decades, Hridoye Mati O Manush and the wider body of Shykh Seraj’s digital advocacy carried new seed, technique and market knowledge into farmers’ hands across every one of these sub-sectors.

Rice production, 1971–2023

Million tonnes · source: BBS, World Bank, IAEA

Annual rice output (Mt)Reported milestone year

Output rose roughly four-fold — from about 9.7 million tonnes in 1971 to over 39 million tonnes by 2023 — even as cultivable land shrank, lifting the country to the world’s third-largest rice producer.

1971 → 2023

3×

Rice output, with half the land per person

Post-1995

2.7%

Annual productivity growth, up from 0.2% in 1980–95

Agri share

~70%

Of agricultural GDP still comes from rice

Economy

6%+

Sustained national growth built on this farm base

The five pillars of the agricultural economy

Seraj’s programmes have reported from, and advocated for, every link in this chain — from the paddy field to the processing plant.

🌾

01 · Crops

Crop Sub-sector

Cereals — rice, wheat, maize
Cash crops — jute, tea, tobacco, sugarcane
Horticulture — potato, mango, jackfruit, banana, vegetables
Oil & pulses — mustard, groundnut, lentil, chickpea
Fibre crops — cotton, silk, rubber

🐟

02 · Fisheries

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Inland capture — rivers, floodplains, beels
Aquaculture — ponds & gher: carp, pangas, tilapia
Marine & coastal — shrimp, prawn, sea fish
Among the world’s top inland-fish producers
Major export commodity

🐄

03 · Livestock

Livestock & Poultry

Livestock — cattle, buffalo, goat
High global rank in goat-milk output
Poultry — broiler, layer, duck, quail
Minor — sheep, pigs
Rural livelihoods, draft power & daily protein

🌲

04 · Forestry

Forestry

Timber & wood — commercial woods, bamboo, cane
Non-timber — honey, beeswax
Medicinal plants
Natural rubber
Forest management & conservation

🏭

05 · Agro-Industry

Allied Agro-Industries

Agro-processing — packaged & halal food
Aromatic-rice milling, coconut oil
Inputs — organic fertiliser, bio-pesticide
Feed milling
Bridge to consumer & export markets

0%The public’s estimate of his share

A people’s verdict on his impact

Bangladesh’s agricultural rise rests on many shoulders — the research institutes (BRRI, BARI, BINA), the extension services, fertiliser and irrigation policy, and above all the farmers themselves. Yet many in Bangladesh credit Shykh Seraj’s decades of media advocacy with as much as 45 percent of the sector’s development — placing his influence alongside that of government itself in carrying knowledge from the laboratory to the field.

This 45% figure reflects widely held public sentiment about his contribution, not a formally measured economic statistic. The documented record — tripled output, soaring productivity, and a generation of farmers reached — speaks to an influence that is real, even where it resists precise quantification.

05Five Decades in the Field

1975

The Beginning

Joins Bangladesh Television as a freelance producer, associating with journalism since his university days.

1982

Mati O Manush

Creates and presents Soil & People on BTV — Bangladesh's first and longest-running agricultural series, hosted until 1996.

1995

Ekushey Padak

Honoured with the second-highest civilian award of Bangladesh for his contribution to development through media.

1999

Channel i

Becomes Founder Director of Bangladesh's first-ever 24×7 digital satellite television channel.

2004

Hridoye Mati O Manush

Launches Soil & People in Heart on Channel i — moving from awareness to direct action. Now exceeding 1,500 episodes.

2009

FAO A.H. Boerma Award

Receives the UN's highest international honour for an agricultural journalist — the first-ever Bengali and fifth Asian recipient.

2018

Swadhinata Puroshkar

Awarded Bangladesh's highest civilian honour for his relentless dedication to farmers.

2021

Digital Bangladesh Award

Recognised for promoting agriculture through innovative digital media to a global audience.

06The Programmes

Television that changed how a nation farms.

1982 – 1996 · BTV

Mati O Manush

Soil & People

The pioneering primetime agricultural documentary that brought a human face to development communication for the first time.

A national institution

2004 – Present · Channel i

Hridoye Mati O Manush

Soil & People in Heart

Bangladesh's most respected platform for agricultural dialogue, innovation and advocacy, with English subtitles for a global audience.

1,500+ episodes

2004 – Present · Channel i

Chhad Krishi

Rooftop Farming

Inspired millions of urban dwellers to cultivate their rooftops — strengthening food resilience in the era of climate change.

360+ episodes

2007 – Present · BTV

Krishi Dibanishi

Agriculture, Round the Clock

A return to Bangladesh Television with a new format dedicated to mass awareness and institutional reform in agriculture.

700+ episodes

Annual · Channel i

Krishoker Eid Ananda

Farmers' Eid Delight

A uniquely engaging rural game show that transfers modern farming technology to the field through entertainment.

Technology through play

Channel i

Chhotoder Krishi

CropKids

Bringing the next generation closer to the soil — nurturing youth leadership and restoring dignity to the farming profession.

For the future

Shykh Seraj inspecting crops in the field

In the Field

Always closer to the soil, and the hands that till it.

From the rooftops of Dhaka to the saline coast of Dakop, from waterlogged Bhabodaho to the orchards of Feni, Seraj has carried his camera across Bangladesh and to more than a dozen countries — documenting innovation and bringing the world's best farming practices home.

"His reportage is not merely an exercise in information delivery, but a compassionate narrative woven with deep-rooted respect for the soil."

07Beyond Broadcasting

🗳️

Krishi Budget Krishoker Budget

The pre-budget dialogue that lets farmers speak directly to policymakers — influencing national decisions on fair pricing, insurance and crop reform.

300,000+ farmers · 45 districts

🩺

Farmers' Health Service

Free medical assistance for poor rural farmers and their families, through a first-of-its-kind partnership between a TV programme and a hospital.

200,000+ farmers served

🌱

Grow Green

A quiet revolution in sustainable agriculture — promoting organic fertilisers and vermicompost through a network of women's self-help groups.

Since 2014 · all 64 districts

🌾

Returning to Roots

Firey Chol Matir Taney — university students live and work as farmers for three days, becoming Hridoye Mati O Manush Fellows.

Youth leadership in the field

📖

Farm Journalism

A foundational book, published with Katalyst, providing a structured framework to train new generations of development journalists.

Now part of the DU curriculum

🤝

Green Bridge Cooperative

The Hridoye Mati O Manush Farmers' Cooperative Association — uniting farmers on a single platform, spreading nationwide since 2009.

Farmer-led, since 2009

👩‍🌾

Women Farmers' Empowerment

Putting women at the centre of rural transformation — training, organising and resourcing women through self-help groups to lead in the field and at home.

300,000+ women farmers empowered

📊

AgriData & Agro-Insurance

Transforming agricultural data into food security — using Big Data, Machine Learning and AI to guide farmers, and championing agro-insurance for climate and crop resilience.

Data-driven · climate-resilient

"Development journalism gives soul to media — it gives it a human face."

— Shykh Seraj

08Honours & Recognition

A lifetime, honoured at home and abroad.

International

1992Ashoka Fellowship USA

2002Young Asia Television Award

2006World Food Programme Media Award

2009UN FAO A.H. Boerma Award Highest international honour for agricultural journalism — first Bengali, fifth Asian

2009UNESCO Bangladesh Journalism Award

2011Honourary Crest, House of Commons UK Parliament

2015Gusi Peace Prize Philippines

2022Ambassador of Agriculture Maldives

National

1995Ekushey Padak Second-highest civilian award of Bangladesh

2005Bangabandhu Gold Medal

2006Bangladesh Economic Association Gold Medal

2014Public Health Service Award For the Farmers' Health Service initiative

2016Ranada Prasad Saha Gold Medal · Bangla Academy Fellowship

2018Swadhinata Puroshkar Highest civilian honour of Bangladesh

2019BIDS Fellow

2021Digital Bangladesh Award

Matir Manush Shykh Seraj — book cover

In Print

A life written into the nation's library.

মাটির মানুষ শাইখ সিরাজ

Beyond eighteen published books — from Farm Journalism to Son of the Soil — Seraj's work has itself become the subject of literature. His insights now form part of the agricultural journalism curriculum at the University of Dhaka, where a full PhD thesis examined the impact of his television work — a distinction rarely bestowed upon a living journalist.

Follow the Journey

A global audience for the soil.

Follow the Initiative and its founder across television, print and digital platforms — features on sustainable agriculture, food security and climate resilience reaching a global audience.