PABNA, Nov 05: Five youths in the district are bearing their educational expenses by rearing ducks.
Locals said Suman Ali, a student of Pabna Government Edward College, Ruhul Amin, a first year student of Government Shaheed Bulbul College, Johnny Hossain, a third year student of Atgharia Degree College and Shamsul Huda, a third year student of Shamul Huda Degree College of Sadar and Sajib Hossain are pursuing their study with their own earnings.
The youths from Madhupara union under Atgharia upazila have attained self-reliance from the duck farm, they added.
Talking to the youths, it is learnt that most of the people of the village are earning their livings from agriculture. They are from grassroots families.
They said there is no guarantee that they will get jobs after completing their studies. "That's why we thought of doing something for ourselves", they added.
Accordingly, they saved a small amount Tk 20,000 from their earnings.
Later, they took another Tk 10,000 from their families.
Five months ago, they bought three hundred ducklings by Tk 15,000 from their fund and started a farm. The rest of the money is left for feeds.
During the visit, this correspondent saw that the duck farm is built around a pond along the road leading from the field to the village. Four out of five young men spend a busy time in the farm in the afternoon.
Suman Ali said most of the people in their village earn extra money from poultry and cow rearing. From an early age they have been watching this. As a result, they have gathered experience in raising ducks.
Sajeeb Hossain said they do not have to do any work on the farm except providing feed for three days and take ducks from the pond in the evening.
Shamim Hossain said, "We will be happy if we can run the farm properly."
