Inspiring others to stand on their feet

It all began in 2002 when Hridoy, the only son of Anuwara Begum Doly, brought two quail birds to their home from his maternal uncle. But little did Doly know that it would be the start to her journey as a successful entrepreneur and role model for women across the district.

Doly, a resident of Narsingdi's Polasherchor under Zinardi Union, recently shared her success story with The Daily Star.

The birds started giving two eggs a day after three months, she said. She sold the eggs to the local market and earned some extra money. Motivated, she requested her husband to bring her more quail birds.

That went on for a while. Seeing profit in the venture, she asked him to invest more and start a full fledged business. Although her husband was initially opposed to the idea, he ultimately brought 600 quails by investing Tk 20,000.

Her husband got trained on rearing quails from the Youth Development Department and passed the knowledge to Doly. Together, they started operating a full scale quail farm.

"Soon, we started to see profits. Although my husband passed away 10 years ago, I carried on with my farms and helped those who wanted to follow in our footsteps."

She is now a proud owner of two farms where 35,000-40,000 quails are being reared.  She gets between 8,000 and 10,000 eggs a day, for which she earns around Tk 25,000. She sells 100 pieces at Tk 230 to Tk 250, she said.

After taking all relevant expenses into account, she makes a profit of Tk 15,000 to Tk 18,000 per day, meaning her monthly profit is between Tk 3.5 lakh to Tk 4 lakh.

Besides, she now supplies quails to about 8,000 farms and entrepreneurs.

"Using  incubators, I produce about 80,000 to 90,000 birds from eggs in a month," she added.

Her only son Hridoy is now an engineering student at a private university in Dhaka.

But it wasn't always smooth sailing for Doly. "My farms were affected by bird flu in 2007. Many of my birds died during this time."

"But I refused to give up. I received a donation of Tk 9 lakh from the then government and started all over again," she added.

AN INSPIRATION FOR OTHERS

Fatema Begum (34), a widow hailing from Brahmanbaria district, got the idea of rearing quail from Doly through social media. After watching relevant posts, she contacted Doly over messenger app and learnt all about starting a farm of her own.

Now she is financially solvent by rearing quails. She now has about 500 birds, 400 of which lay eggs regularly.

"It's a profitable sector. The demand for quail eggs and meat is high," she added.

Suma Akter, hailing from Keraniganj, also saw success by following Doly's footsteps.

 "I came to know about Doly from a relative and collected 30 quails from her about three years back," she said.

Doly said, "If anyone comes to me, I encourage quail rearing and give them necessary training on the matter. About 200 youths and widows in the last 10 years started rearing quails and became solvent."

Dr Habibur Rahman, deputy director of the Department of Livestock Services, said, "Doly is a role model on quail farming in Bangladesh. We awarded her several times for her contribution in the sector."