By Champa Mollick from Satkhira
Once the only earning source of Monir was teaching students as private tutor but today he is known as ‘doctor’ for animals in his village. He received training on livestock rearing and management from the Department of Livestock’s local office. BARCIK linked him with the department and he is now very thankful to BARCIK for such an opportunity provided to him. Monirul Islam is a twenty years old youth in the remote village of Dhal under Syamnagr upazila of Satkhira district which faces the fury of nature as it is affected by coastal cyclone almost every year. He was hailed from a very poor family and was struggling with poverty since childhood as his father’s income was too low to meet the family needs. His father owns a small shrimp farm of 665 decimals lands whose return is not enough to maintain family expense. Monir switched the farm from shrimp farming to freshwater fish culture and planted fodder crops around the pond to feed livestock he now is rearing.
Monir always harboured an interest for integrated farming with fish and livestock as his mother had domestic livestock, and when their family needed a large amount of money, she would sell ducks, chickens or goats to solve the problem. With this inspiration and perseverance, at present, Monir has 55 goats, 21 sheep, 25 pigeons, 10 chickens, 6 ducks, 3 cows and pond-fish farm including fresh water fish like Rohu, Carp, Mrigal, Catfish, Gangetic koi (climbing fish), Snakehead Murrel, Eel fish and Lobster. Last year, he earned BDT 1, 50000 (USD 1785) by selling farm produces.
Motivated by a desire to learn something new, Monir now wants to get trained in more sophisticated technologies of such pregnancy testing, blood testing and artificial insemination. Monir wants to move forward his farming enterprise in larger scale in the coming days.
Translated by ABM Touhidul Alam
