At a time when almost every educated youth in Kashmir wants to join a government job for a guaranteed pay cheque, this 30-year-old from Bandipora decided to open a dairy farm putting the taboos to rest that highly qualified people should not do any ‘odd work’.
Mir Mushtaq of Kunan village from Bandipora district after completing MPhil in Psychology from Vikramadatya University, Ujjain instead of waiting for a government job decided to choose his own niche business as he believes dairy farming will bring self-sustenance in Kashmir’s milk production.
“I always wanted to create my own identity where I can become a job creator instead of a job seeker,” says Mushtaq.
The decision to go for a dairy farming business by Mushtaq was taken only after research and consultation with his friends and family. The abundance of land and grass fields available in Mushtaq’s village provided to a positive edge for doing dairy business.
After working for his idea for more than one year, Mushtaq approached JKEDI for financing his project.
“With the help of Rs 7 lakh seed capital funding from JKEDI ( This scheme is to address the issue of unemployment in the society. Under this, seed money of a maximum of 10 lakh will be provided to eligible youth.) and Rs 3 lakh from my father, I started the dairy farm. EDI also provided me 20 days training, where I got to learn many things. We also interacted with dairy farm owners of Kashmir during those days, who provided me a lot of guidance,” says Mushtaq.
Mushtaq’s Mir Dairy Farm has presently 11 cows and after deducting the expenses, Mushtaq earns about Rs 50,000 monthly from his farm.
However, he cautions that getting involved in a new business can make you really busy and in this hustle-bustle you can sometimes make wrong choices that can put monetary costs on your venture and bring financial instability. Therefore, one needs to keep that in mind.
“Running a dairy farm is not everybody’s cup of tea but with hard work and dedication one can easily handle it. Every time you have to be on your toes to keep the place clean for maintaining the health of your animals and hygiene and quality of milk. Therefore, it involves washing, cleaning the cowsheds among the other chores. Moreover you have to keep veterinary doctors ready for checkup to be cautious about different diseases,” says Mushtaq. Mushtaq has many future plans and pursuing them in full swing.
His only advice to the youth is that they should not run after government jobs rather they should plan to go for their own business ventures.
