Our Correspondent :
A young man named Shohal Hawladar (32) of Bivore dreamed of becoming a millionaire by farming a Dumba in Ishwardi. For five years, he has been running the farm without any hindrance, earning about Tk. 15 lakh per year, excluding expenses. Besides Dumba, his farm has a total of 80 valuable breeds of totapuri, Haryana, Pakistani beetle and native goats.
The eldest son of Ibrahim Hawladar of Kacharipara in the municipal area passed HSC and went into the business of importing goods from India with his father. Going to Rajasthan, he became interested in raising Dumba and Totapuri. He built a farm at home. At first he started his journey from Dhaka with 5 dumbas.
When he visited the farm on Sunday, Shohal said he had sold three dumbas, including two taken to a livestock exhibition on June 5, to the Dhaka party for Tk 7 lakh today.
He started with 5 but now he has 34 Dumba, 8 Totapuri, 6 Pakistani Beetles, 15 Haryana and a total of 80 valuable breeds of goats. Already the farm has had many offspring of other species, including dumbass. He now regularly sells these after importing them from Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Rajasthan in India.
He said that he was selling large size Dumba at Tk. 1.5 lakh to Tk. 2 lakh, 3-month-old Dumba at Tk.1 lakh and 6-month-old Dumba at Tk. 120,000. Children of Totapuri and Haryana breeds are selling for 30-35 thousand rupees and big ones for 60-70 thousand taka. Pakistani beetles are sold for up to Tk. 50,000 and adults up to Tk. 1 lakh. In five months, Dumba gives birth to 2 babies in some cases. Babies are found twice a year and a half.
He further said that there is not much difficulty in rearing these beautiful animals including dumba and the diseases are less.
Calling it a highly lucrative business, he said he and two employees look after the farm. He is supplying Dumba all over Bangladesh and is making a profit of around Tk 15 lakh a year excluding expenses. He said that he is dreaming of owning crores of rupees by honestly trading these expensive breeds of goats including Dumba.
Ishwardi Upazila Livestock Officer Dr. Rafiqul Islam said that keeping dumba is very profitable, adding that even though it is a desert animal, we do not have any environmental problem.
Shohal’s farm would have been more profitable if it had been vacant. As the char areas are suitable for rearing dumba, the cost of rearing is less due to eating grass as well as some granular food.
There is still a lot of interest among many due to the high cost of raising lambs and not knowing that there are no environmental problems in raising them.
