NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, July 25, 2005

Only 14 kilometres away from the thana town Trishal in Mymensingh district, there stands a small hamlet named Dhala of about 7,000 people on the bank of the Brahmaputra. Inhabitants of the area were once seriously suffered due to poverty and finding no other option many of them used to resort to criminal activities just for survival. Commuters traveling by Dhaka-bound train when halted at the Gaforgaon rail-station cautioned one another of pickpockets and of theft, because ?Dhala was not far from the station?.

But time has now changed. Dhalaba residents with every drop of their sweat have washed off the stigma. It is ?hatchery farm? that has brought a revolutionary improvement to their living. Travelers from the adjacent villages now dare not mock at them; rather they envy their prosperity. ?Dhalabashis? have now become symbol of success of the area.

A total of 11 hatcheries have so far been established in Dhala. The land area is occupied by number of ponds. Once used as paddy fields, the low lands of the village have been turned into ponds to keep the mother fishes. Directly and indirectly all of the inhabitants are involved with hatchery business.

?Earlier we produced at best six maunds paddy in one katha land. Now we lend the same plot to the hatchery owner for Tk 3,000 per year,? informed a villager to The New Nation.

?We earn a handsome net profits every year from each hatchery,? said MA Baten, pioneer of the project at Dhala.
Story found here.