Shikha and Shujit Sarkar
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Authors
Barua, Gunjan
Issue Date
2017-10
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Agriculture , Climate Change
Alternative Title
Abstract
My name is Shujit Sarkar, age 36. My wife’s name is Shikha Sarkar, age 36. There are 6 family members in my family. We have 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy. The boy is studying in class 4 in a local primary school. The girls are married off. We live in Kopalia, Rajbongshipara of Jessore district. I sell fish fingerlings in different locations around my village. I have to buy fish fingerlings aged 2-3 days from central Jessore which is 30 Kilometre away. I then keep them in a cage (hapa) for 3 days and sell afterwards. I go to different households or fish farms to sell the fingerlings. Sometimes I have to travel 25-40 kilometre to sell the fingerlings. I buy 1,000 fingerlings for BDT 600 (£5.50) and sell them at BDT 700-1,200 (£6.4- 11). My wife does household chores and looks after the child. I earn around BDT 300 per day (£2.75) by selling the fingerlings. My monthly income stands at an average of BDT 6,000 (£54.9). I can only sell 20 days in a month during dry season.
I also sometimes work as a day labour in the fish farms and in the paddy fields. The daily income stands BDT 250-300 (£2.3-2.75). I have no land or pond of my own. I keep the fingerlings in the canal. During each rainy season, the canal water overflows. The village becomes waterlogged then. So, during that time, the fingerlings cannot be nurtured or sold. The paddy fields also remain under water that time. So, I cannot find any daily labour that time. In fact, no paddy has grown in last 2 years due to waterlogging problem. This is my first cycle of aquageoponics. The cage is provided by Practical Action. I have invested BDT 1,300 (£11.90) to insert 1,500 fingerlings in the cage. I am regularly monitoring the growth of the fishes and found it very promising. I expect to harvest around 140 KG fish from the cage. I hope I can earn around BDT 12,000 (£110). This farming technique requires less effort. My wife is mainly working in the cages. She feeds the fishes and regularly cleans the cage. We haven’t seen this farming technique before. This is sowing hope in our life as it can provide additional income. Also, during rainy season, it can supplement our income as we have very limited opportunity for work. Other people in my locality are also interested in this. I will continue this farming technique. If possible, I will make another cage next year and expand the farming.