There was a time when almost every village family in our country raised chickens, but over time that is no longer seen much.

Young people, however, see chicken rearing as one of the main ways to beat unemployment and become financially self-reliant. Having started a chicken business with little capital, Saidul Islam of Nabinagar, Brahmanbaria, is now quite self-reliant.

The only son of the late Abdur Rahman, a former UP member of Charpara village in the upazila's Jinodpur union — named in the report at this point as Saidur Rahman — was a small cloth trader by profession. After Covid-19 struck Bangladesh in 2020, Saidul Islam fell into financial difficulty as repeated lockdowns kept shops from opening.

Watching YouTube, he became interested in raising deshi (native) chickens and started doing so. Saidul Islam first built a small chicken shed at his home and began with 35 deshi chickens. He has not looked back since. He now has two good-quality sheds and about 1,000 deshi chickens, large and small.

"Because of a long-held strong wish, I started raising deshi chickens on my own land. I have become self-reliant through it. I now have two sheds, but they are not enough for my chickens, so I will build two more," Saidul Islam said.

It is now possible to earn about Tk 50,000 a month from the farm, and he plans to expand and raise different breeds of chicken in future.

Chickens from his deshi farm sell for Tk 300 to 400 a kg, and each chick sells for Tk 50 to 70 depending on size. Every day people come from far and wide to see the chicken farm in its natural setting.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.