10 years back Rajkishore Gurung did not have anything of his own. He worked for a local landlord (Rayamajhi surname) for a decade but his life did not have any changes. He then felt, “I should do something on my own now.” Thus, he started to graze a few chickens. But it did not give the income as he expected. This failure led him to Malaysia for foreign employment. In third year of working, he had some problems in his eyes. He came back to Nepal for his eye treatment and he dislikes going to foreign in greed of few works and less money. The reason was, SUS had come into his village and already started various training of skill development and income generating training. It was also giving some aid to those who are interested in grazing cattle.
His wife, Tara, had got some training in growing vegetables and also entrepreneurship training. Tara raised his confidence and said, “SUS is here to support us. We can work and earn here.”
SUS provided 25 thousand as an initial aid to graze chicken. Then, the couple reinstated the chicken grazing. Now they did not have to go through the loss as earlier because they were receiving technical aid from SUS. With their first income, they invested on adding a number of chickens and making a shed. Then, they continuously earned from the business.
He bought some goats from the income and profit generated by chicken grazing. Again, they got a good sum of profit. They were not upto goat and chicken grazing. They moved ahead. Rajkishore said, “Once having money, I was motivated to generate new ideas of income.”
In their own income they dug a new pond for farming fish in 1.5 katha land. Now, they are not bound to beg for money with any locals, so, they kept increasing their business and increased boar and duck farming. The wife would sell some vegetables she would grow and generate some home expenses.
Now his wife, Tara is chair of local SHG (Jaliya Woman’s Group). As Tara is used to saving, she also has ideas of investment and increased income. She is no more worried.
Tara has 1400 chickens in two sheds. 1200 fishes in a pond. Once grazing baby fish in the pond, they sold it later on and earned 1 lakh 20 thousand rupees. This income not only has motivated her, she has also learned that one can earn good from fish farming with small investment and labor. So, she is planning to increase the size of the pond.
Rajkishore spent 7 thousand and bought two baby bores and raised them. In three months, he sold them for 24 thousand. Thus, he earned 17 thousand as a profit in a short time. Now, he added 7 more baby boar. Now, he has 3 baby bores in his shed. He also had 40 ducks. He sold 30 and now he owns 10 ducks. He is also grazing 6 he-goats, 5 mother goats and several other baby goats that numbers to 18 in total. He earns almost 2 lakh every year from the goat farming itself.
Earlier, like other farmers, he used to cultivate paddy and maize. But he had to go to sahu’s home’s nook and corner to sell the crops. The farmers would not get a chance to price their product. Now, he is no more in those days. He does not have to go to the market to sell fish and chicken. Local sáhu come to his home to buy fish and chicken. He laughed, “Earlier the sáhu would price the products, now I do myself.”
He has been managing to educate the children in his own effort, and has been bearing household expenses. He has bought some land from the saved money. Earlier, Rajkishore was like a squatter, now he is the owner of 20 kattha land. His progress does not stop here. He is planning to make a 6-room house. Says, “Maybe it costs 25-30 lakhs rupees.”
He is planning to bear the expenses by income from selling chicken, goat and fishes. He says that such a great journey of success was possible because of SUS’s support and his own effort. If he had not been into income generating skills of his own, his sons too would have gone to golf countries in search of employment. He said, “As sons have seen the ways of income generation, they do not have any plans of going abroad.”
Discussion about this post