He sees success in chicken farming too

This time he has established a layer chicken farm at his village home in Sadar upazila after achieving a tremendous success in vegetable farming.

Besides producing vegetables like papaya, brinjal, cauliflower and bean on 150 bighas of land, 68-year-old Altaf Hossain, widely known as Altu Mia, has recently started rearing layer chickens to get more profit.

He received best award in eco-friendly vegetable production in the country in 2016, said Jhenidah District Livestock Officer Hafizur Rahman.

Altu, a resident of Ganna village, started nursing 4,000 one-day chickens of layer variety from Kazi Farms in Dhaka after buying them at Tk 37 each in October last year.

“On Monday, I got at least 20 eggs from the farm for the first time. Sale of the eggs and the hens will continue till January next year,” said the farmer.

He hopes to get about 3,200 eggs a day when all the chikens will start laying eggs.

“I will have to spend about Tk 20 lakh for the farming till January next year and hope that I will earn Tk 16 lakh from it,” he said.

College student Abdus Sabur, attendant of the farm, said staffs of the livestock department have been rendering their services to keep the chicken free from any disease. Only naturally produced feeds like puffed rice are fed to the chickens.

Altu said he wants to establish chicken farms to ensure eggs and chicken for the people of the district and surrounding areas at an affordable price.

To make the venture a success, he has already talked to the vendors so that the produced items might be supplied from the farm directly, said the farmer.