49-Year-Old Muslim Woman From The US Left Her Luxurious Life To Rear Cows In Native Village

At a time when the cow protection is being regarded with utmost importance and incidents of lynching are making the headline, this Muslim woman is demonstrating how the wellbeing of cows is important both for the society and for the dairy revolution.

Marjiya Musa, 49, could have lived happily in the US, but the desire to do something for her village in Kanodar in Banaskantha district drew her back to her roots. She realised that dairy would be the idea which could change the fate of her village.

TOI/reuters

Hence, she set up a five-acre farm in Kanodar in November in 2016 with 22 cows. The initial investment was 2.50 crores and now she has 120 Holstein Friesian cows-a Dutch breed.

¡°In Texas, I worked in the home-flipping industry. The business is to renovate an old home and sell them,¡± Musa said. ¡°But I constantly yearned to serve my Vatan (country).¡± Musa has two children who live in the US.

¡°Initially, I set up an automated farm in my village and deployed three women to distribute milk and milk products and to look after the cows,¡± Musa said. ¡°Operations began just after demonetization and there were many struggles to contend with.¡±

¡®Musa¡¯s model can be replicated in other villages¡¯. Prejudice and suspicions posed the most disquieting challenges. ¡°Once, some self-styled gau rakshaks stopped the vehicle in which my staff was bringing cows from Maharashtra,¡± she said. ¡°But I called the police and took protection before the problem escalated.¡±

The floods in 2017 further added to her problems when a calf died after the farm submerged under water. ¡°It took several days to clean the farm,¡± Musa said. ¡°Local residents helped us. We had the fully automated operation running again.¡±

reuters

Not only this, but Musa has also been running awareness campaigns for the farmers of the region to help them take care of the cattle properly. She uses the radio-frequency identification system to monitor the cows. The automated milking parlor collects data on the temperature ad calving.

Musa spends Rs 250 per feed per cow. The average milk yield is around 14 litre per day per cow. She said profits are not dramatic yet, but she makes Rs 2 lakh approximately by selling cattle feed per month that she has developed with 32 herbs. She also sells milk products such as ghee.

Kanodar sarpanch Zaheer Abbas Chaudhary said Musa¡¯s model can be replicated in other villages.