Suhail Khan
Sopore: The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has struggled with youth unemployment for a long time without finding an easy answer, but in recent years, several government-sponsored programmes have had a significant impact on reducing it.
Dairy farming has been identified as one of these programmes’ potential to create jobs in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in rural regions.
One such story is of Ajaz Ahmad Dar of Sopore village in the north Kashmir district of Baramulla, who, after being denied a government job, establishes a dairy farm with the assistance of the Animal Husbandry Department and has since become a successful entrepreneur.
A 30-year-old with a Master of Science in Mathematics (MSC), and B.Ed from Sopore’s Hib Dangerpora village, tried numerous times for government jobs but was unsuccessful, so he established his own dairy farm.
In an exclusive interview with The Web Story, Aijaz said that earlier he worked as a private teacher for many years, but when he failed to reach the needs, he started to do something different.
“I set up a business unit, and in between, I came to know about the animal husbandry department’s scheme, in which they were providing five cows through the IDS Scheme,” he said.
Aijaz availed the services at the local animal husbandry unit in Sopore where the doctors posted helped him to set up the unit.
“This is how my journey started and there is no turn back,” Aijaz added.
The 31-year-old Sopore youth said his life has completely changed and that today he is a job provider for job seekers.
He stated that educated youth should not waste their valuable time looking for only government jobs, as there are many options now where one can easily survive his livelihood in a much better way than a government job.
“I consider myself an example of how an idea to start a dairy farm has changed my entire life where my income is handsome and am helping others by providing a job,” he added.
Aijaz said that from a unit of 5 cows, he is generating 70 liters of milk every day which makes it 3500 per day. He said that he is earning around 1 lakh in this business.
“There are also other ways, including cow dung, through which we can generate more income and the good part is people are approaching me for the milk and by products,” he further added.
Aijaz stated that animal husbandry is subsidizing all facilities, including the milking machine, in addition to taking care of cow vaccination.
It is pertinent to mention here that for setting up a dairy unit with five cows, the government provides a male entrepreneur with a subsidy of Rs 1.75 lakh, while female and SC and ST entrepreneurs get a Rs 2 lakh subsidy for setting up a dairy farm with five cows. One can even avail of subsidies for multiple farms.
