A housewife who was helpless now turned her back with hard labour and firm mental force. She earns about Taka four lakh a year from her nursery, fish farming pond, milching cows and vermi-compost. She is an icon of self-reliance in the area.
Madhu Begum, a widow of Bhupatipur village under Porahati union in Jhenidah Sadar upazila, said she was at a loss when her husband Belal Mia was managing the family working in the agriculture field, developed a mini nursery on 10 decimal plot in 1988. He died suddenly leaving her with three daughters and a son in 2003.
Immediate after the death of Beleal Mia, the widow finding no other alternative started working with the nursery with her four children. Collecting a number of papya plants, she transplanted them on 11 decimals of land in her home premises that was lying fallow. She had purchased 40 decimals of land with the sale proceeds of the matured papya. It ensures Taka 25 thousand a month.
The housewife has been cultivating various local species of fishes in her mini pond. The vermi-compost along with earth worms produced from cow-dung, banana wastages and water hyacinth has been providing her hand some amount of money.
Further, the fish produced by herself, meeting her daily family needs. Her cattle farm with three cows at her house premises has been ensuring good money for her. Moreover, the cow-dung received from the cows, meeting the demand of her vermi-compost plots, she said.
The success farmer Madhu Begum said witnessing her hard labour and mental force, an activist of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) Razia Khatun came forward and offered her one kilogram of the earth worms free of cost. The worms have been helping expanding the vermi-compost. The plot providing Taka 15 thousand net profit a month.
With the sale proceeds of nursery, pond, vermi-compost and dairy farm at the home stead, she has been earning Taka four lakh every year. The earning has helped her to manage the marriage cost of her three daughters and run her family smoothly, Madhu Begum said.
In her reaction, the widow said each and every woman could establish herself in family or society, and live happily against hard labour with confidence. The blood-eyes of the society could not solve any problem of any family, rather throws them in an uncertain future, she expressed.
