I am a hopeful person with a life filled with blessings. I come from a family of aquaculture entrepreneurs. So, it was no wonder that I would also explore this sector once I grew up. My grandfather, Bijoy Krishna Saha, started the business with only a half bigha of land, and my father took over the responsibility after his death. He devoted all of his life to carrying on what my grandfather had started. Now, after my father’s death, I have been entrusted with the family business to take it further ahead.

My father was the inspiration behind all of my works till his death. That’s why I dedicated the fish feed mill after his name. I wish my father were here to see all that I have achieved. WorldFish also helped to learn the opportunities of the fish feed business. They shared 50% of the investment to start the mill. It was a contract of 5 years from 2015. So when the contract ended in late 2019, I became the sole proprietor of Shama Fish Feed.

Currently, I own 9 pieces of small and big ponds that account for a total of 125 bighas in different areas. Some of them are used as a reserve for minnows that I collect from the Padma river. I usually earn a decent amount of profit from the half-yearly production. Apart from the fish culture, I also have some agriculture initiatives where I have planted date trees from Rangpur, the famous Haribanga mangos, Barishal’s hog plum, etc. These are all very new additions to my business, and it may take another year or two to understand the possibilities.

I always try to incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly ways to grow my business. That’s why I earned two national agriculture awards from our Prime Minister, one in 2011 and the second one in 2018. Emerging entrepreneurs in my area get encouraged by my achievements, and I try to help them in every way I can. However, after the Covid-19 came, many entrepreneurs had to leave this sector because of the massive rise in prices of fish feed. Although I have my own feed mill, it’s still getting hard to earn the same profit as before. So, others who are just starting their business, have no way to make profits at all. I truly believe the government should subside the prices for the feeds and medicines so that we can sustain our business.

My grandfather used to say, “Dream as long as you live”, and I follow his philosophy wholeheartedly. All the training seminars and programs hosted by the good people at WorldFish, LightCastle Partners have allowed me to know more about fish feed, new technologies that allowed me to dream big. Now, I want to try cultivating the dates from Rangpur because I believe they will become a profitable business here. With that, I hope everything will work out well for all the aquaculture entrepreneurs soon.