26 years of village animal care by motorbike; an agri clinic earns Tk 40,000-50,000 a month from organic fertiliser

A 49-year-old from Sundarban village in Dinajpur Sadar studied up to class nine. In 1995 he took a job at a nearby chemical fertiliser and pesticide shop, listening to farmers' problems and passing on what he learned from company representatives. When the shop closed in 1999 he took three months of training at the Thakurgaon Youth Development Training Centre and began treating animals locally. He sets out daily on a motorbike with medicine and equipment, charges for the medicine, and many pay a fee too when pleased. In 2014 he set up the Integrated Agri Clinic, alongside an agri store and seed farm and a livestock and fisheries medicine shop. On 4,000 sq ft near his house he makes vermicompost. He sells trico-compost at Tk 12 a kg, vermicompost at Tk 15, and microbial fertiliser at Tk 900-1,000 a drum. Fertiliser sales bring in an average Tk 40,000-50,000 a month, and 8-10 workers now work with him. He says that at first people called him mad and nobody bought his fertiliser; now many place advance orders.