Began with Tk 1.5 lakh from selling his mother's jewellery; capital Tk 30 lakh in four years, about Tk 1 lakh a month

After his father died in 2016, a young man from Jorarganj in Mirsarai took on responsibility for a family of five including his mother, two sisters and a brother. Instead of chasing a job he chose fish farming, but capital was the big hurdle. In 2019 he sold two bhori of his mother's jewellery and, with the Tk 1.5 lakh it fetched, began fish farming on 30 decimals. Within the first year Covid caused a big loss; he kept the business going on borrowed money. Toward the end of 2020 it started to turn a profit. He then set up biofloc fish farming and a cattle farm at home. By Prothom Alo's account, over the past four years the five-acre fish farm and the 26-cattle farm together have taken his capital to Tk 30 lakh, and after all costs he earns about Tk 1 lakh a month. He learned the technical side from YouTube videos. He says he got no help from the local fisheries office; the upazila fisheries officer said there may have been a communication gap and that he would look into it. From the income he married off his two younger sisters and bought back jewellery equal to what his mother had sold.