Bah Marius Tlang is a resident of Umrasong village in the East Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya. He is a father of ten children – 9 boys and 1 girl. All except his oldest child is not pursuing studies. Before he registered at the EFC, he made a living working by transporting rocks from the mines. He started raising pigs and further got involved in agriculture. Bah Marius’ economic situation before the EFC was quite dire and found it very difficult to fulfill the basic needs of his family.
In 2017, he heard about Megha-LAMP and registered himself with the EFC. He started piggery farming and also went into pineapple and maize farming apart from raising fish in two ponds. He received various trainings, saplings, manure and piglets from the Horticulture Department and also other government departments. He attended training programmes on agricultural and piggery farming organized by Horticulture, Agriculture and Veterinary Departments. Through these training programmes, he has developed an understanding on the scientific aspects of farming which has improved not only his knowledge but also his farming abilities. While registering himself at the EFC, he anticipated getting support in terms of loans; however, what he received was the ability to network with various governmental departments who in turn have assisted him through various training programmes.
Bah Marius has invested an amount of INR 8, 00,000 for the construction of the piggery farm. So far, he has taken loans twice from Meghalaya Rural Bank in Khliehriat; in 2015, he took a loan of INR 1, 50,000 which he has already paid off and in 2018, he then took a loan of INR 20, 000, 00 which he is slowly repaying. His business has really taken off since he first started and has an annual production of 200 pigs where he makes INR 7, 00, 000 out of which INR 3, 00, 000 is his profit. He also earns INR 50,000 per year from the pineapple plantations out of which INR 20,000 is his profit. Bah Marius does not have to spend any money on transportation costs of the pigs/ piglets as people come directly to his farm to purchase them.
Bah Marius has also been able to give employment to others and now has three workers working for him. They take care of most of the work starting from feeding the pigs, cleaning the farm, planting the crops and other farm related activity. He pays them an amount if INR 300 per day and have been working with him for a few years.
He aims to continually grow his business and has dreams of expansion. He hopes that he will receive support and subsidies from governmental departments in order to upscale his business.