Mennonite Central Committee

First Person: Mossammat Asia Khatun

From the January/February 2008 issue of "A Common Place"

When I was growing up, people in my village didn’t raise animals or vegetables. We just grew rice. A lot of things have changed since then.

In my family, we raise chickens in a coop behind our house. We started with 50 chicks, and now we are raising 300 chicks. Center for Community Development Services (a Bangladeshi organization supported by MCC) loaned me money to build the coop and gave me information on raising chickens.

I learned about how much space is needed per chick, how much food is required and how to prevent diseases. I always use disinfectant to wash my feet before going into the coop. I use a chart to give the chicks vitamins and vaccines at the right times. Sometimes, my husband helps me to vaccinate all the chicks.

Three other women in the village have also started chicken coops. Sometimes we visit each other and talk about how our chickens are doing.

I also have a vegetable garden with gourds, okra, carrots, coriander and pumpkins. An agricultural worker from Center for Community Development Services taught me several ways to increase my harvests.

One thing I learned is that when insects start eating a pumpkin, I should take it away and bury it. That helps to control the pests.

I also learned to grow gourds on bamboo trellises. By using the trellises and keeping the weeds underneath cleared, I can grow more gourds. Clearing weeds protects the gourd from harmful insects and keeps my crop healthier.

My husband and I live with our son, our daughter-in-law and our two granddaughters. We have four daughters in their 20s who are married and live in a nearby town with their husbands. So we often have many guests to our home, and they eat a lot. We save the best birds for the family, and we always eat chicken.

My husband has a shop in the village market, and he sells most of our chickens there. He used to serve on our local government council, and he didn’t have enough time to spend with the family. He would be working somewhere else and I was alone in the house.

Now, we work together to raise chickens, and he stays at home more. We can eat together, we can chat together, and it’s good.

Mossammat Asia Khatun is a farmer in the Sirajganj district of northwestern Bangladesh. MCC provides funds and training for agricultural extension agents from Center for Community Development Services, a Bangladeshi organization, to help Khatun and other farmers learn new techniques to raise livestock and produce.