Bah Only Pohtam, a resident of Kudeng Rim village under Amlarem Block in West Jaintia Hills District is a dedicated farmer who was dependent solely on farming for his livelihood. Bah Pohtam cultivates a variety of cash crops such as Betel leaf, arecanut, broom- grass and others. Today, he also runs a poultry farm which he started in 2012, as an additional source income.
The Poultry farm was started under the guidance of the “Namrhenlang Multi Purpose Co-operative Society. Bah Pohtam started with about 100 Fowl (broilers) using Rs. 18,000 given by the Society, as well as his own money. The entire farm cost him Rs. 34,000 to established.
From these 100 birds, Bah Pohtam earned a total of Rs 8,000. This success greatly motivated him, and he decided to enhance his skills in poultry farming activity. In June 2013, he got himself registered at the Amlarem Enterprise Facilitation Centre (EFC) and in April 2014, he was sent for Training on Poultry farming at RRTC, Umran by District Basin Development Unit, West Jaintia Hills District and Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE).
After training, Bah Pohtam returned home and using his newly acquired knowledge, he was able to adopt modern approaches to manage his farm, including feed formulation and health management. After this initial success he was sent for an exposure visit to Ranchi, Jharkhand for “Micro Enterprise on Livestock” which was organized by the District Basin Development Unit, Jowai and Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE). There he learnt how to expand the capacity of his farm from 100 to 200 birds per batch. Today, he has scaled up even further and he now rears about 700 fowls which he then sells both within his village as well as in neighbouring villages including Amkoi, Nongbareh rim and Chnong Lynter. His monthly income has now risen to Rs 12,000.
Recently, Bah Pohtam has indicated his intent to further expand his Poultry Farm and increase its capacity to 2,000 fowls. He also plans to set up a mini Feed Mill so he can create job opportunities for unemployed youths in his Village.