IMPROVED TECHNOLOGY: IMPROVED LIFE

Mst. Khudeja Begum a lactating women having 3 children, BHHID 588319010314, a demo pond farmer of Aaoi village situated at Bhunobir union of Sreemongal upazila, is practicing improved technology such as raised pond dyke, pond preparation, liming, stocking fingerling, using fish feed in her 7-decimal pond. Her husband Jahid Hasan enthusiastically renders help to uphold the proper maintenance of the pond and vegetables cultivation. Khudeja is a conscious member of SUCHANA M&C group and attends courtyard meetings regularly. Moreover, she brings her child habitually in GMP sessions. The family is consuming diversified food regularly to ensure balanced and nutritious diet. She has cultivated vegetables on pond dyke. The couple have visionary plan to establish a nursery and hatchery from where they can produce quality seedlings and fish fingerling so that they can sale those to the community where the supply of quality product is absent. It is not a hyperbole that Khudeja along with her husband pro-actively performing her responsibility as a demo pond farmer as she expressed her experiences and learnings with the community people who have keen interest in practicing improved aquaculture in their homestead ponds. However, the couple have sold the surplus fish and vegetables after family consumption in the village market and made a good profit by which they bought a cow.   The picture of this family was not rosy in 2 and half year earlier because it has lack of knowledge on nutrition and improved cultivation practice. Being identified as poor household, Khudeja has been supported by HFP-Fish intervention and selected as demo-pond-farmer by SUCHANA project.

“Before my enrolment as a beneficiary of SUCHANA, I have zero knowledge on nutrition and improved way of cultivation and fish farming. We, the couple, work hard to produce fish and vegetables in our homestead but the harvest resulted was disproportionate with our effort. Getting support and know-how from SUCHANA enable us to reverse the picture and bring success.” Said Khudeja and Jahid.