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ICT keeps the Chickens Clucking: the Case of Sheik Raisul Islam Rana
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Sheik Raisul Islam Rana is a young farmer. He lives in his village in the sub-district of Bagherpara which is in the Jessore District. His household consists of his mother and father, his wife and young son. He owns about 9 bighas of land on which he farms rice, palwal, lentils, bottle gourd and a numerous varieties of spinach. Though most of his income comes from farming, like all other farmers in the area, Rana has a few other side activities which add to his income. One such activity is chicken farming. Rana has been chicken farming for nearly 6 years now. He says that the profits are good in rearing chicken, but that if they catch a disease then it becomes a serious problem: because the chicken are kept in such a closed and confined area, if one gets a disease, then the chances are that the other chicken will also get the disease.
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He had heard about the e-Krishok agricultural campaign from the Brand Promoter at the Bagherpara Community Information Center (CIC) Gopal. Gopal had informed Rana that he should come to the CIC if he faces any sort of problem—be it agricultural, livestock or poultry. Rana knew Gopal well, so he felt that it was a trustworthy initiative. He was curious about the entire campaign; and so he kept it in mind.
He recalled the words of Gopal when a number of his chicken caught a cold during this past winter. About 20 of his chicken caught a cold and he was worried that the cold would spread to the rest of his 100 chicken. He informed Gopal about his problem. Gopal through the agricultural specialist of e-Krishok told Rana to administer a medicine to the affected chicken. Of the 20 chicken affected, 4 died and the rest survived. By selling the 16 chicken that survived Rana expects to earn about Tk. 6000, a tidy sum in his mind. He was happy with the outcome.
Because he was satisfied with the outcome of his chicken problem, Rana was willing to go the CIC with another problem. His bottle gourd crop, which he was farming on 1 bigha of land, was attacked by pests and was destroying the crop. Again Gopal provided the correct solution to Rana’s problem through the agricultural specialist. Using the medicine caused the pests to disappear within 2-3 days. He was able to save nearly 85% of his bottle gourd crop. Rana now expects to earn nearly Tk 20,000 from his investment of Tk. 9,000, thereby profiting by Tk. 11,000.
Rana says that before whenever he faced such problems, he would have to go to the Sub-Assistant Agricultural Officer (SAAO) or to the dealers of pesticide, fertilizer etc. In his experience, their advice was not reliable all the time and the SAAO was also not available most of the time. And this is the most crucial reason why he is very happy with the e-Krishok campaign. Whenever, and with whatever problem he can go to the CIC and get the cor
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