A journey towards self-reliance

In his youths in early 2000s, when people of his age were struggling to land a job somehow, he chose to walk a different path – the path to become a self-reliant person. 

He soon started his venture of rearing cows, with a dream to establish a dairy firm someday. But things were not as smooth as he thought.

Due to the soaring price of cattle feed, he had to spend extra bucks for rearing cattle. He even started feeling that he was far from achieving his dream of a dairy firm.

In the meantime, some years passed by. In 2009, an idea hit his mind: what if he grew fodder himself to minimise expenditure of cattle rearing.

The rest is history now.

Meet Dean Mohammad Hafiz, hailing from Mannan Nagar at Sadar upazila in Noakhali, who has turned the wheels of his fate by growing grass.

He started growing grass as fodder for his cattle; soon he started farming it commercially for earning good profit by selling it in the local market.

Gradually, he started buying more cows. Eventually, in 2015, he got registration from the district livestock office to set up his dairy firm with around 25 cows. Started with just three cows, he now owns 60 cows, thanks to grass farming.   

Asked, Hafiz said he started cultivating fodder grass by investing only Tk5,000.

Apart from meeting the demand of his dairy firm, Hafiz earns around Tk20,000 per month by selling the grass to cattle farmers.

A good number of cattle farmers of Noakhali char and adjacent areas now depend on fodder grass produced in Hafiz's farmland. Alongside his dairy farm, he has also formed an organisation – "Zannat Cattle Grass Food Supply" – to expedite the process of delivering the grass.  

"This grass grows up rapidly and takes about 20 days to be matured," said Hafiz.

Veterinary surgeon of Noakhali Sadar Shah Paran said the cattle get about 15 to 20 percent more protein from these green grass than what they get from dry straw.

This type of green grass is a nourishing fodder item for cattle; milk cows give good production if they are provided the grass regularly, he said.

Moreover, the demand of his green fodder is on the rise due to price hike of dry cattle fodder like hay, he added. 

District veterinary officer Nani Gopal said Hafiz has made himself a successful entrepreneur by cultivating grass – a glaring example for the unemployed youths to follow.