National Desk :
Duck farming have changed Jahanra’s family life. Now they are very happy by dint of this initiative . It has helped overcoming the family crisis.
“Just 23 years back in 1998, I, along with my husband, started the farm with 50 ducklings. We bought those at Taka 500 and also spent another Tk 500 for building a duck shelter . . . But the duck-farm has now over 700 birds. It has given us a new life,” housewife Jahanara Begum, a successful duck farmer, told BSS recently.
Jahanara Begum , then a 26 years woman, and her husband Ataur Rahman had set up the duck farm at Karatkandi village under Khanmarich union of Bhangura upazila in Pabna district. ” Now the annual income is about Taka two to three lakhs . . . We are able to save money for the educational expenses of two sons and other everyday expenditure of the five-member family,” she said with a smiling face.
But this success story started with only Taka 1000, at the very outset of the duck rearing. She said the cost of ducks rearing was very little. After six months, the ducks were sold at about Taka 6000. Besides, ducks laid a good amount of eggs from which a handsome amount was earned.
“. Then we just started only moving forward amid increasing the farm’s perimeter gradually. Now our total house has become a duck-farm. Presently we have also started rearing cows simultaneously ,” she mentioned.
Jahanara said every year at the end of the month of Baishakh, I use to buy 800-1000 ducklings of three-four days old. We start selling them at the perfect maturity on Magh (Bengali month). Each pair is sold at a wholesale price of TK 500-600. She said the ducks started laying eggs within six months and the farm gets 300 to 400 eggs per day. The market price of those eggs is estimated to Taka 3000 to 35000.
In their five-member family, eldest son Jahangir Hossain passed the masters degree from Bogra Government Azizul Haque College and is now working at a private company. Youngest son Zahidul Islam is a second year student of degree (pass) at a local private college. Jahanara’s husband Ataur said he did not have any crop land before starting this farm. Houses and farms are within the area of 15 Shotangsha land.
