Engineering graduate makes a mark in country hen breeding!

An engineering graduate from Tamil Nadu's Kongu region has taken up hen rearing as a means to earn a livelihood. Krishnamurthy, who completed his graduation in computer science engineering couldn't find a suitable job to make both ends meet and thus turned to hen rearing. After an initial struggle, his endeavour is fetching a sumptuous income.

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu):A young man from Tamil Nadu's Kongu region, after his graduation in engineering is engaged in rearing country hens in order to stand on his own legs.

Krishnamurthy, the eldest son of the Thangaraj and Shakuntala Mani, a couple from the Kamala Thottipalayam area next to Pasur in Coimbatore district, has been selling country hens for the past two years after completing his graduation in computer science engineering. He is putting in a lot of effort to rear ducks, rabbits and pigeons too.

Dwelling on this, graduate youth Krishnamurthy said, "After graduating from college in 2016, I worked in two places. Since I could not make both ends meet out of the earnings from these, I decided to start my own business. As desired, I went to several markets and fetched endangered country hen species and reared them at home. Then I sold them to non-vegetarian restaurants."

"After earning a meagre initial income, I have now expanded my business to sell quality broiler hens to non-vegetarian restaurants in the Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Nilgiris districts. The industry, which was initially struggling, is now fetching a sumptuous income.

While my parents initially objected to country hen breeding, they extended cooperation after being told that my desire was to be self-employed.

At present, I am raising various types of chickens in our house such as Kadakanath and KiNNi hen varieties. I will soon be making efforts to foster ducks, pigeons and rabbits too. Despite the sluggishness in sales during the current lockdown period my income has not dwindled," he said happily.

He also appealed to the zealous youth aspiring to seek jobs to come forward to engage themselves in self-employment instead of getting disheartened while not getting a job elsewhere.

Krishnamurthy's mother Shakuntala Mani said, "We both, being illiterates, were aspiring that our son should study engineering and should get placed well in a decent job. When my son stated that he was going to rear and sell broiler hens because he could not get a proper job, it came as a rude shock. We left him in his stride though. To start with it was very painful for us to see him travel by bus carrying hen loads in gunny bags and market them.

In addition, neighbours and relatives also caused pain with sarcastic comments about an engineering graduate selling hen. Nevertheless, it is gratifying that Krishnamurthy is now well versed in that profession and moves well on the path of progress.

It is delightful to find our son, who initially travelled by bus is now in possession of his own two-wheeler on which he continues to sell the country hens. We desire he expands this further on and ends up as a good entrepreneur."