Dilruba Khatun of Meherpur now keeps about 1,000 ducks and hatches some 2,000 ducklings a week in a 36,000-egg incubator, three years after starting with Tk 30,000.
FisheriesFry for the district's 6,438 fish ponds come from Jashore, Jhenaidah, Naogaon and Santahar; the district fisheries officer says the Sadar hatchery is being readied to restart next year.
With a bigha costing Tk 20,000-26,000 to grow and yielding about 10 maunds at roughly Tk 3,000 a maund, the fibre alone leaves little profit; traders now pay Tk 10,000-15,000 for the same field's sticks, which have moved beyond cooking fuel to fencing, cattle sheds and hawking in town.
Early winter beans are the most profitable crop for Meherpur farmers, earning up to 80,000 taka a bigha, but pesticide use remains dangerous.
