Instead of running after service, educated youth Mahmudul Hasan of Faridabad Daktarpara village in Taraganj upazila here has changed his fortune by setting up a dairy farm five years ago.

In addition to attaining self-reliance through rearing foreign-origin cows in his dairy farm, Mahmud has employed three of his family members and two neighbouring youths in his farm.

Mahmudul has set up the ‘Mahmudul Dairy Farm’ in front of his residence in the village basically as a cow-milk producing venture. Along with milk production in his farm, Mahmudul is fattening cows for increasing meat production. Currently, there are 24 cows on his farm after selling 12 cows and he produces 90 to 100 litres of milk daily.

Talking to BSS, Mahmudul said he tried his best to get a job after passing the HSC examinations in 2008. But, he failed to get job till 2014.

Then, he decided not to waste valuable time by running behind job and to do something himself. He planned to raise a dairy farm and consulted with his father to start the venture. His father gave him Taka 1.50-lakh as seed capital.

“In February, 2014, I bought two foreign dairy cows. After a few months of rearing, a cow gave birth to a heifer. After five days of childbirth, the cow started to give 10 to 12 liters of milk daily,” Mahmudul said.

After two months, the other cow gave birth to a heifer and started giving 11 to 12 litres of milk a day. “I started getting 23 to 24 litres of milk from two cows daily to earn good profit,” he said, adding that the success encouraged his family when his father bought another milk-giving cow with a heifer to expand his venture.

An enthusiastic Mahmudul went to Taraganj Upazila Department Youth Development in 2015 to get advice for further expanding his farm. The then Upazila Youth Development Officer advised him to get training when he underwent a three-month training on ‘Dairy farming and cow fattening’ in early 2016.

Later, he applied for a loan to the Upazila Department Youth Development and got a good amount of loan.

Mahmudul bought another milk-giving cow with a heifer when the number of his cows rose to eight. And thus, his dairy farm started expanding onward.

“Basically from idea of standing on own feet, I have raised dairy farm where three of my family members are now employed. I have employed two other youths at Taka 9,000 salary per month for each,” Mahmudul said.

By this time, Mahmudul has established a biogas plant where he uses cow-dung to produce biogas and electricity that helps him a lot to save cost for electricity.