How a power couple made fortune out of a fish
WorldFish has trained about 60,000 women in 23 districts in fish farming and the production of fish products
One day in 1999, Bina Majhi was surprised to find her husband, Harun Majhi, bringing home a catla fish instead of buying some rice with the money he was supposed to get from selling some fish fingerlings.
Her surprise turned to anger when she realised the fish was not for cooking. Harun had big dreams with the fish with a belly full of eggs.
That mother catla soon produced about 3kg of spawn.
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Since then, the poverty-stricken Majhi family of the Hajipur area of Kalapara, Patuakhali, never had to look back. Harun and Bina soon built a hatchery, from which the couple began earning more than one lakh taka per month. They are now one of the most prosperous families in the village with properties valued over a crore.
Bina Majhi, who never went to school, later played an essential role in the hatchery's success. With her own efforts and support from WorldFish, a nonprofit research and innovation institution, she learned to produce hatchlings artificially.
Bina told The Business Standard, "There was a time when I could not eat three meals a day. Now owning a hatchery seems like a dream come true. We cultivate fish spawn and big fish all year round in two ponds and four enclosures."
The couple has also trained hundreds of men and women in their own district and surrounding districts. The Majhi family is now an inspiration to many.
The Majhi hatchery
Bina and Harun own a spacious two-acre property housing their residence, two ponds, and four enclosures.
There, they produce a total of nine types of fish including rui, catla, mrigel, silver carp, grass carp, bighead, rajputi, and pangas. Besides this, there is also a nursery of pangas fish.
About 600-700 grams of eggs can be collected from a 4kg rui fish. It is possible to produce about 2kg of spawn from this egg. About 1,20,000 spawns are produced from one kilogram. The price of spawn per kg is usually Tk2,000-Tk4,500 depending on the season.
In the season of 2022, they sold about 1,000kg of spawn. The market value of which is about Tk30 lakh. With the cost of fish, electricity bill, labour and medicine, and accessories, they spend about Tk20 lakh per year.
"I mastered how to produce chicks from eggs by my own efforts. My husband helped me in this matter," Bina told TBS.
"If someone works, be it a woman or a man, it is possible to overcome the financial crises," Bina added.
Role of WorldFish
Harun and Bina expressed their deep appreciation for the continuous support provided by WorldFish in recent years.
WorldFish is implementing a programme called "Bangladesh Aquaculture and Nutrition Activity" to empower women entrepreneurs. It was funded by USAID. Through this, about 60,000 women, including Bina, in 23 districts have been trained in fish farming and the production of fish products.
Emdad Hossain, senior program manager of WorldFish, told TBS, "Through our ongoing project, we have helped them [Bina Majhi] with about Tk17 lakh. They [Harun and Bina] themselves have invested about Tk6 lakh in their hatchery."
"The couple is not only a successful entrepreneur but also a fish farming instructor for other fish farmers," Emdad said.
Md Shafiqur Rahman, a gender specialist at USAID Feed the Future Bangladesh Aquaculture and Nutrition Activity, said, "Around 45,368 small fish farmers are getting support from the initiatives in access to finance, better quality seed, feed, aqua medicine products along with advisory services to sustain their aquaculture production and income."
The project, funded with approximately $24.5 million, has been ongoing from February 2018 to November 2023.
The programme established 20 Women Business Centers where 100 female fish farmers can sell their aqua products easily to earn money directly from the market. Around 100 partners were involved with the Activity in the last 5 years.
