"People generally think that the purpose of education is something else. At least not agriculture, they believe," said Sharada. "We got to change the mindset. We need to have more and more educated people in the agricultural field," she stressed.It was not a long held dream neither was it pre-planned. The couple simply wanted to do something that would give them good return of their labor. "We had zeal to do something and we chose cow farming," Sharada informed, adding that no profession is disgraceful.
To start with, the couple bought a jersey cow in 2011. That cost them Rs 22,000. Extra expense was needed for cowshed. That was also done. Within a year, the couple added five more cows and the next year registered 'Prakriti Cow Farm' to go ahead professionally.
"Today, we have 34 cows including 12 milking cows. They are milked twice a day," an elated Bishnu said. "We give all our time to our work, we take care of the cows as properly as we can," he added.
Taking care of the cattle is not that easy though. The couple has to wake up at 4 in the morning everyday and get into their business. Since just one staff has been kept for help, the workload is heavy.
"We have no problem in selling milk. People come to our doorstep to get it," Bishnu informed. The farm produces 150 liters of milk per day. While he charges between Rs 38 to 42 per liter to dairy depending on the level of lacto and fat, retail price per liter is Rs 60. The couple saves fifty percent of total investment.
"Gross profit is more but if we talk of net profit, we save 50 percent of what we invest," Bishnu said, adding that it equals to around Rs 125,000 per month.
The money is sufficient to pay for our children's school fees, run the household and for savings as well. Further expansion of the business is the couple's desire. According to Sharada, cow farming not only produces milk, but its urine and dung are equally useful. "Actually we are learning a lot and becoming better farmers, we guess," she said.
Cow farming felt like a boon for the couple during the Indian economic blockade. While people were suffering due to the lack of cooking gas in the market, this couple had no worries. "We have been using cow dung and urine for biogas. So, we had no problem during the blockade," Sharada said.
According to Bishnu, infertility is generally an issue regarding the jersey breed of cows. Many farmers bear loss due to this. For this, the government needs to distribute 'sex semen', which has been the long-time demand of farmers. "When jersey cows are made pregnant through sex semen, there's 90 percent chance of the cows giving birth to female calf. It is very important for overall profit that cows produce females," he explained.
Livestock service office in the district had distributed sex semen to some farmers last year, as a sample testing. The same year, Milk Production Board had provided Rs 100,000 to the Pokhrel couple as cash prize for their encouraging role in cow farming.
As per the data of District Livestock Service Office, there are 104 cow farms in total in the district. On the basis of the cow numbers, Prakriti Cow Farm is the biggest farm in the district, according to Livestock Development Officer, Lalit Jung Kunwar.
"For the encouragement of the people like Pokhrel couple, we provide aid and other facilities every year. However, there's no program on sex semen distribution yet," he said.
Meanwhile, the office chief Dr Bed Bahadur KC noted that growing number of people in the district are getting attracted to cow farming. "We should further encourage it. We indeed have been providing them technical assistance," he said.
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