Hasna Begum and her family’s inspiring story
Ronochondi is a remote village in Panchagarh, where Hasna Begum and her family live. They were having hard times when the family started to grow. At that time she came to know about Kazi Shahid Foundation (KSF) and its contractual dairy farming model from her sister who was a beneficiary member of KSF. With her eagerness and self-confidence, Hasna Begum went nearby KSF branch at Darjipara and showed her interest to be a part of it and started her journey with KSF from 2011. As she was a regular and sincere member of this program, she repaid her first cow loan by milk and cow dung in due time and got a second cow. By adopting new innovative breeding technique like artificial insemination, she is producing high yielding calves in her dairy farm which are eventually producing large volume of milk and increased her daily income (approximately 1000 taka daily). Following her elder sister’s footstep Hasna installed the fiberglass biogas plant at her household. She saw the biogas plant and its usefulness at her elder sister’s house and learnt about KSF’s biogas program, which encouraged her to have a better and hassle free cooking. It has reduced the time and energy that she spends for cooking. She gets enough time for her own self and can spend time with her children. According to Hasna, she can now use her extra time to manage her household and dairy farm. Her dream is to have a large dairy farm and educate her children for a better life.
Khadiza Khatun’s inspiring story
At an early age of 16, Khadiza Khatun got married when she was a student of class 9.Her husband was a cattle business man from a small village in Tetulia Upazila. He wanted to expand his business as their family started to grow but because of financial penury they were having hard times. Meanwhile, Khadiza Khatun came to know about Kazi Shahid Foundation (KSF) and its contractual dairy farming model. She became a member of KSF and took her first cow loan to start her dairy farm. She has also set up a small grocery store in front of her house which adds additional income to her family. As she has plenty of cow dung from her dairy farm, she seizes the opportunity to have a biogas plant installed for clean and hassle free cooking for her family. Now, she has more time to take care of her children, cattle and grocery store. Her husband also helps her in the dairy farm and has expanded his cattle business. She wants to expand her dairy farm along with her husband’s cattle business.
Farmers’ Day
A workshop named “Farmers’ Day” was held on 2nd August, 2012 for the organic vegetable growers from Savar, who are the KSF cooperative members. This workshop was jointly arranged by Meena Bazar and Kazi Shahid Foundation, a non-profit affiliation of Gemcon group. The workshop was about sharing some effective learning regarding organic vegetable farming with the farmers. At the exchange session, an ordered view was presented which was made based on the purpose of helping the farmers to know more about packaging, managing good transportation and vegetable preservation as well. The purpose of KSF coop in collaborating the workshop was to introduce other with their activities regarding organic vegetable. On this purpose, KSF cooperative has been implementing a contractual milk and dung buy-back dairy farming in rural area of Panchagarh. KSF has some other programs also named Education Program, Tea Cooperative Development Program, Organic Farming Awareness and Practicing Program. Moreover, in 2010, KSF coop started a new project on organic farming of vegeratbles in Savar. KSF coop is helping these farmers to produce their vegetables in an organic ways that would reduce the detrimental food consumption. Even though Meena Bazar has been helping the farmers in Saver with a profitable promotion in market, KSF coop gives them initiatives for a start up.
