Magura pigeon farmer now idol for unemployed youths

With almost empty hand, Shariful Islam returned home from Dubai in 2011 and became very upset. At one stage, he tried his luck in pigeon farming following suggestion of a local pigeon lover and since then he did not need to look back.

Many residents of his locality, especially youths, are now following his footsteps.

Son of late Sabdal Mollah, a marginal farmer from Chandpur village in Magura Sadar upazila, Shariful is the second among eight siblings.

After completing BA (Pass) from a college in Dhaka, Shariful went to Kuwait to seek fortune in 2002, where he worked as an electrician for about eight years. In 2011, he returned home after losing his job. The same year, he went to Dubai but returned home after 36 days.

He could not continue his job there for low wages and returned home with almost empty hand, said Shariful, adding that after some days, he started farming pigeon with an investment of Tk 50,000 on the roof of their house following suggestion of pigeon lover Saiful Islam.

Apart from this, he made pigeons' cages and feed and sold them to traders of different areas in the country.    

At present, he earned a profit of Tk 80,000 from the farming every month, said Shariful, now father of two children.

Shariful further said he has 35 local and international verities of pigeons. Of them, each pair of Bold Head is sold at Tk 1.80 lakh and Gerafer at Tk 1 lakh while Feel Back, English Trumpeter and Black Laurie are sold at Tk 40 to Tk 50 thousand a pair.

He sells the younger ones at Tk 20 to Tk 25 thousand each pair. He gathered primary knowledge about pigeon farming from one of his close friends who works at Acme Veterinary.

He has also set up a sale centre at Binodpur Bazar in the upazila, said Shariful, adding that he opened a Facebook page and sold pigeons through it. 

Seeing Shariful's success, around 15 unemployed youths started pigeon farming and they are now earning good profit, said locals.

A local youth, Rakibul Hossain of Dharla village, said he is very happy running the business. He sells pigeons at Tk 30,000 per month.