Four goats for 20,000 taka doubled in a year; the herd is now 300

In 2012 this young man from Bagachra Satmile in Sharsha, Jashore, then unemployed, bought four goats for 20,000 taka almost as a hobby and sold them within a year for 40,000. Having proved the arithmetic on four animals, he decided to build a farm. On the upazila livestock office’s advice he bought deshi and Black Bengal goats and grew the herd by matched breeding; he now keeps 300 goats of four breeds worth about 15 lakh taka. He and his wife did all the feeding and care themselves until the herd outgrew them, and he now employs three hands at 7,000 taka a month each. He grows hydroponic fodder on waste land beside the house, which covers most of the feed at very low cost: 300 taka a day feeds 20 goats, the same money that feeds a single exotic cow. Goats give birth twice a year, more than one kid at a time, and need one vaccination a year; Sharsha upazila alone now has 1,830 goat farms with 110,000 goats.