RANGPUR, Nov 3, 2019 (BSS) – Instead of running after service, educated
youth Mahmudul Hasan of Faridabad Daktarpara village in Taraganj upazila here
has changed his fortune by setting up a dairy farm five years ago.
In addition to attaining self-reliance through rearing foreign-origin cows
in his dairy farm, Mahmud has employed three of his family members and two
neighbouring youths in his farm.
Mahmudul has set up the ‘Mahmudul Dairy Farm’ in front of his residence in
the village basically as a cow-milk producing venture. Along with milk
production in his farm, Mahmudul is fattening cows for increasing meat
production. Currently, there are 24 cows on his farm after selling 12 cows
and he produces 90 to 100 litres of milk daily.
Talking to BSS, Mahmudul said he tried his best to get a job after passing
the HSC examinations in 2008. But, he failed to get job till 2014.
Then, he decided not to waste valuable time by running behind job and to
do something himself. He planned to raise a dairy farm and consulted with his
father to start the venture. His father gave him Taka 1.50-lakh as seed
capital.
“In February, 2014, I bought two foreign dairy cows. After a few months of
rearing, a cow gave birth to a heifer. After five days of childbirth, the cow
started to give 10 to 12 liters of milk daily,” Mahmudul said.
After two months, the other cow gave birth to a heifer and started giving
11 to 12 litres of milk a day. “I started getting 23 to 24 litres of milk
from two cows daily to earn good profit,” he said, adding that the success
encouraged his family when his father bought another milk-giving cow with a
heifer to expand his venture.
An enthusiastic Mahmudul went to Taraganj Upazila Department Youth
Development in 2015 to get advice for further expanding his farm. The then
Upazila Youth Development Officer advised him to get training when he
underwent a three-month training on ‘Dairy farming and cow fattening’ in
early 2016.
Later, he applied for a loan to the Upazila Department Youth Development
and got a good amount of loan.
Mahmudul bought another milk-giving cow with a heifer when the number of
his cows rose to eight. And thus, his dairy farm started expanding onward.
“Basically from idea of standing on own feet, I have raised dairy farm
where three of my family members are now employed. I have employed two other
youths at Taka 9,000 salary per month for each,” Mahmudul said.
By this time, Mahmudul has established a biogas plant where he uses cow-
dung to produce biogas and electricity that helps him a lot to save cost for
electricity.
“As per recent suggestion given by Taraganj Upazila Livestock Officer Dr.
Md. Sirajul Haque, I have built a shed to produce vermin-compost fertilizer
near my farm,’ Mahmudul said.
Mahmudul said he wants to pack milk produced at his farm for directly
marketing, make cheese, ghee and butter, packet of organic fertilizers,
produce silage and feed at nearby area.
“I have already built a huge tin-shed farm beside my existing farm to
transform my farm into a larger establishment with modern facilities to rear
more than 50 cows together there soon,” he said.
Talking to BSS, Taraganj Upazila Youth Development Officer Md. Abdur Rahim
Mian said Mahmudul is a very enterprising and hard working youth and he works
hard daily for his farm to achieve the success. Taraganj Upazila Livestock
Officer Dr. Md. Sirajul Haque said dairy farm of Mahmudul is an ideal one in
the private sector in the upazila and local youths are following his
footsteps in setting up dairy farms instead of running after jobs.
District Livestock Officer Agriculturist Dr Md. Shah Jamal Khondker said
one of the special initiatives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is ‘My House,
My Farm’ that is effectively creating self-employment for unemployed youths.
“Mahmudul has set a glaring example of successful implementation of the ‘My
House, My Farm’ initiative to create self-employment and jobs other youths
relieving them from frustration of not getting jobs,’ Dr. Khondker added.