Ducks bring fortune for day-labourer family
Their family now earns around Tk 1,000 a day. Their sister Putul, 14, and brother Salim, 8, who had left school due to poverty, are going to school again.
A duck farm has turned their life and brought them fortune.
It is not long ago that they initiated it. Two years back, in a rainy season, Alai Mia of Bariora village in Sarail upazila had borrowed Tk 20,000 from a person and bought 750 ducks. He engaged Shamim and Amin to rear those in wet lands. Within days, about fifty ducks died from duck plague, a disease.
They were undaunted. They called a veterinary doctor.
The veterinarian now examines the ducks once a week.
In about two years, the number of ducks increased to about 2,000. The money was borrowed on condition that fifty per cent of the profit would be paid to the moneylender till the entire money (Tk 20,000) is refunded.
In two years, Alai Mia has refunded the borrowed money from his share of the profit. Now the family takes the whole profit from the farm.
In the rainy season, the two brothers board a small boat and look after the ducks in waterbodies near the village. Rearing is easy and less costly then as ducks can get food in marshy lands. In dry season, the family has to buy a portion of the feed and collect snails. At night the ducks are kept at a makeshift enclosure made with bamboo near a canal under the sky.
They get around 300 eggs a day. Amin says they will sell aged ducks after their laying period is over. This will bring them at least Tk 60,000. They will buy more ducks and expand the farm in their own land.
Amin was feeding the ducks when this correspondent visited the farm recently.
He said he can establish a big farm if he gets interest-free loan.
Amin has qualms because he had leave school due to poverty. But he wants to make his elder sister and younger brother educated.
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