KSF was started as a dairy cooperative to support the country's first and so far only organic tea garden, Kazi and Kazi Tea Estate Ltd. Located in the very northern tip of the country, KKTE was founded by Kazi Shahid Ahmed, Chairman of the Gemcon Group, in 2000, with the express goal of improving lives in this remote and neglected region through enterprise. Gemcon first came to the district in the
mid-80s with an innovative engineering concern to aid rural electrification. Given the Chairman's commitment to the region, it has since expanded in a number of ways, including jute and tea, and of course the cooperative, to become one of the largest private employers with 4000 employees. The first tea garden in northern Bangladesh. The first organic tea garden and also only one to be internationally certified. KKTE employs organic methods that go well beyond mere certification requirements. This calls for huge quantities of bio-fertilizers for which cow-dung is a key ingredient. As the garden expanded, and its need for cow-dung exceeded the capacity of its own dairy, the garden adopted a most innovative solution: giving cows to neighboring women, who pay off the price in installments, through highly feasible daily quota of milk and cow dung. The ownership of the cow, and any calves it breeds, are fully transferred to the women. This innovative formula has not only ensured steady supply of manure for a garden now approaching thousand acres, but also brought around phenomenal transformation to the lives of the KSF women. Named after our founder, Kazi Shahid Ahmed, KSF is fulfilling the mission of improving the lives of our neighbors more deeply than even we imagined possible at the time of the cooperative's founding. In addition to radically increasing the women's income and assets, KSF also facilitates an organic tea cooperative, organic vegetable farming and supply, bio-fertilizer production and education programs. It has now expanded to two new districts: Sirajganj and Savar. It believes in steady and sustainble growth, guided by the value: we grow only in harmony with nature and society.
