Starting Poultry and Orange Farming after Vocational Training

Mr. Shiv Thapa, 30, of Gaindakot VDC – 9 says – I was really tired of toiling in Dubai, Qatar for so long, so I returned from the Middle East. I used to do very hard manual labor work with very low financial incentive.  My father was so sad to know that I couldn’t pay back the loan around Rs. 600,000 ($7,058.82) taken for my foreign employment job processing. I decided to do something in my own village. “First of all I took part in Junar (kind of orange) farming training given by local cooperative Grameen Bikash Saving and Credit Cooperative Limited and started Junar farming on my 20 ropanies of fallow land. Then I installed two sets of SHS in my house and started poultry farming by taking loan for both purposes. SHS loan was Rs. 20,000 ($235.29) and IGA loan was Rs. 300,000 ($3,529.41) and now poultry business is really good. I am paying back my loans on a regular basis.  As a byproduct from poultry farming, I am getting highly nutrient organic fertilizer which I am utilizing in potato farming, which is helping save at least Rs. 100,000 ($1,176.47) a year.” Now I am paying around Rs. 1500 /per month ($17.65) for SHS loan and around Rs. 20000/per month ($235.29) for the poultry farming loan easily with the earnings from poultry farming. My ambition is to start a big Junar farm in the future and I would like to introduce this village as a pocket VDC for Junar farming. I am also in close contact with District Agriculture Office for necessary technical and other support.

The motivation for poultry farming was initiated after installation of SHS and training opportunity from Andhakarmukti and potato and orange farming initiation were created after the orange farming training provided by Grameen. “The SHS has been multi functional and I am proud that it has improved quality of life for my father and all my family members.” “My future aim is to open a fresh house (meat selling shop) in nearest market and upscale my orange farming so I sincerely thank to cooperative, Grameen Bikash for giving me opportunity to work and stay on my own land through access to credit.