Khokar shopno (Khoka’s dream)

Abstract

This story is about the change in the food intake of a young boy, Khoka, after his family started to grow fish and vegetables in a homestead pond. Khoka’s parents are poor. They do not have land to grow food even for their own consumption, nor do they earn enough to buy food from the market. Khoka was unhappy with the family’s monotonous diet. Then his father was introduced to WISH (water + fish) pond technology by Ali, a local service provider trained by WorldFish. This pond enables the family to grow small fish and vegetables in a portable pond that only needs 6m2 of space. Khoka now eats a varied, nutritious diet, and he enjoys helping his father to water the vegetables, feed the fish and even catch them sometimes. His father also started trading small amounts of fish, shrimp fry and PL during the peak season, earning extra money to support the family.