Ostrich breeding is a good case for starting agricultural and animal husbandry activities due to the type of meat and its yield, which was done by Manya Farzami.
“Mania Farzami is a resident of Karimabad village in the central part of Khorramabad city of Lorestan province. She is 34 years old and the mother of a seven-years-old boy named Matyar, a boy who, as his name means, is always his mother’s companion and supporter.
Mania, in the University of Clothing Design she has studied and been there as a lecturer for several years, but doing group activities with more added value and his entrepreneurial personality have led him to agriculture, animal husbandry and clothing production.
Ostrich breeding, saffron cultivation, handicrafts, clothing production and tailoring training for neglected and homeless women, drying vegetables, raising domestic chickens and roosters are among the activities that this lady does, as a member of Lorestan women farmers, Farzami describes her story as follows:
Ostrich breeding story
During my trip to Khuzestan with my father, I saw ostrich breeding farms and became interested in breeding this bird. In 2016, we started our work by breeding one ostrich and by the beginning of 2021, we increased their number to 42.
Due to the spread of the Corona virus, with the sharp drop in the price of ostrich meat and the fear of this virus being transmitted to the ostriches, we sold all of them, but now we plan to start our work again.”
According to Manya, the difficulties of breeding ostriches are many and this bird needs a lot of care in its early days, the lack of support from some of the guardian organizations in providing ostrich feed and inputs made it difficult for him to breed these creatures.
With the good profitability that this activity created, they were able to create employment for three people directly and five people indirectly. Mrs. Farzami says about their other activities:
During the time of Corona, we changed our activities and entered the field of medicinal plants and saffron cultivation so that the women of the village could have a good income and we were able to dry and package these plants and sell them wholesale.
Mania activities
Drying vegetables and raising domestic chickens and roosters can be a background for women to enter into activities such as growing medicinal plants or raising ostriches. Of course, women can create ostrich breeding farms as a group, because after the first two to three months and intensive care of the ostrich chicks, these activities are profitable.”
Mrs. Manya says about the personality of an entrepreneur: “A good entrepreneur is someone who can change activities when needed and take action according to the conditions. In the era of Corona, those who were able to adapt to the new conditions were successful.”
In the small fund, these women are members from a 70-year-old old woman to a 22-year-old young girl, and all of them have been able to earn a monthly income with their efforts. During the saffron harvesting season creates daily work for eighty people.
Manya Farzami has taken over the sale of these women’s products and sells the products through methods such as the Internet and virtual space, home advertisements and referring to various organizations.
This lady, with the partnership of her father “Syros Farzami”, planted broad-leaved chickpeas in 12 hectares, which were planted in December of this year and harvested in June.
Planting in a linear manner with a row-row machine, the ability to harvest with a combine harvester, stabilization of soil nitrogen, more yield than traditional cultivation, better income and economic efficiency, rainfed and organic cultivation have been the main reasons for choosing
Manya believes that every villager has a unique capacity that can be entrepreneurship in the village by first identifying them and secondly by providing facilities and monitoring activities.
