How crossbred sheep can become the next 'cash animal'
Sheep farming, which carries a lighter carbon footprint, promises to change lives in calamity-prone southwestern Bangladesh
Cyclone Aila's powerful tidal surges uprooted Arun Mandal - who used to catch fish and shrimp from the River Shibsa - and his wife, Bipula, from their family land in 2009. But they managed to survive the catastrophe and took shelter at Gunari village of Dacope, Khulna.
Ten years after Aila, although their eldest son Nani Gopal had graduated from the National University, Arun continued as a fisherman, as his second son Ardhendu had just started college.
One day in 2019, overstressed Arun suffered a brain stroke and became partially paralyzed. For the family, it was a stronger blow than the cyclone. Exhausted Bipula did not give up. She started vegetable farming on a tiny fallow land. She sold cow milk produced at her small cattle farm that the family had built on NGO loans.
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But the Covid-19 pandemic the following year saturated the market for vegetables and milk. To afford family expenditures, she sold all cows but two ewes.
On 30 November 2021, Bipula took Tk6,000 soft loan from a non-government development organisation called Heed Bangladesh and bought two ewes of indigenous variety. The loan scheme also provided her with a Tk8,000-worth adult hybrid ram from an Indian variety free of cost.
By the end of 2022, Bipula's sheep farm grew from five to 17 sheep, including crossbreeds. In January, she sold six lambs to the Dacope meat market.
"Our economic hardship is gradually disappearing. I have paid off the NGO loan. Some pregnant ewes will give birth to new lambs soon. This farm will expand more," Bipula Mandal said.
Another victim of Aila, Lakshman Bain, the Mandal family's close neighbour, sold two indigenous lambs to the market at Tk5,000 each last year.
Motivated by the success of Bipula, Lakshman took a similar loan from the NGO. Now he has five sheep, including one hybrid ram. "I am expecting a good sale of crossbreed lambs at Tk10,000 each," said Lakshman.
Lakshman works as a seasonal farm labourer. As Aman rice harvesting has been completed in his area, he was planning to migrate to Gopalganj temporarily in search of a day-labour job. "If my sheep farm expands, I will not have to migrate to another place for jobs," he added.
The potential
Motivated by traditional farming of indigenous sheep in the southern Khulna division, particularly sheep crossbreeding practices in India-bordering Meherpur and Chuadanga districts, the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) built a 100-sheep capacity central breeding centre on 4-bigha land at Dacope in June 2017.
After a successful pilot in a collaboration with Heed Bangladesh, the cross-breeding of sheep is now taking place in 178 small farms in Dacope, and 64 more will come into operation in the coming months.
Al Imran, an animal husbandry professional in charge of the breeding centre, said that 30-35 kg of meat can be produced from an adult crossbred sheep, while a similarly aged indigenous sheep produces only 10-15 kg of meat.
In recent years, demand for lamb meat is growing around Dacope. Mizanur Rahman, a Dacope-based butcher said that he used to sell lamb meat at Tk700 per kg one year ago. He now sells the same amount of meat at Tk850.
"Last week, I sold the meat of six lambs and one goat," Mizan said on 6 February.
A study conducted in 2019 on the prospects and problems of indigenous sheep production in the Southwestern Coastal Regions of Bangladesh found that the majority of sheep farmers (more than 94%) experienced increased income after adopting sheep farming.
Lead author of the study, Professor Sarder Safiqul Islam of the Agrotechnology discipline under Khulna University said crossbreeding has revolutionised the cattle farming and dairy industry in Bangladesh. "Likewise, crossbreeding of sheep can bring positive results," he added.
PKSF's Pathways to Prosperity for Extremely Poor People Project Director Dr Sharif Ahmed Chowdhury, terming sheep as one of the 'cash animals' after cows and goats, said, "Even if local consumers prefer mutton, lamb meat has a big export market."
Pointing out that foreign merchandisers collect lamb meat from coastal markets adjacent to the Chittagong and Mongla Ports, and that the trade remains still unrecognised, Sharif said, "If we can make this trade formal by processing the meat, maintaining quality and hygiene, farmers will get better prices."
Lighter carbon footprint
55-year-old farmer Nigham Ananda Halder knows all about how rearing bulls is costly in the salinity-hit locality.
Nigham owns a three-bigha land where he used to cultivate paddy just a decade ago. Annually, he would harvest 50 mounds of rice from the one-crop field. But he abandoned rice cultivation as the land became saline. He leased out the land and now he gets Tk45,000 as lease money.
But the return is less valuable to him. "For six months, I bought a bunch of cattle feed at Tk20,000. Half of the lease money was spent in buying feed for four cows and one calf," Nigham said.
The cows do not drink saline water. So Nigham has to collect drinkable water for them. Despite the investment, the cows did not grow much.
Why didn't you try hybrid cows? Nigham replied with a counter question, "From where do I arrange enough feed and water for hybrid cows?"
The salinity-hit land produces less grass, while single-crop rice cultivation results in poor supply of cattle feed (paddy straws).
PKSF officials claim that rearing goats and sheep is more profitable than cows in the coastal belt.
"But goats are picky with food. On the other hand, sheep eat like scavenging animals. They eat whatever they find available, like green grass, straws and kitchen leftovers. Most importantly, they consume less food than a cow," said animal husbandry professional Imran.
The eating habits of sheep strikes at a crucial issue related to global warming. Animals ruminate food and also belch out methane – a powerful greenhouse gas.
"The less an animal consumes cellulose [the principal content of straw], the less it emits greenhouse gas. In this context, a sheep's carbon footprint is lighter than a cow," said Professor Safiqul.
A study titled 'An estimation of greenhouse gas emission from livestock in Bangladesh' and published in 2020 by scientists from Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute and BSMRST University, Gopalganj estimated that in 2018, sheep population in the country emitted the lowest greenhouse gas or only 2.4% of total 66,586 Gg/year CO2e produced by dairy cattle, buffalo, goat, other cattle and poultry.
Here, Gg/ year CO2e stands for gigagram carbon dioxide equivalent gas released in a year.
Challenges
The Department of Livestock (DLS) counted 37.52 lakh sheep heads across Bangladesh in 2021-22FY. The sheep population was 28.77 lakh in 2008-09FY.
In Khulna division which comprises 10 districts including three coastal ones, there are around two lakh sheep, according to DLS statistics.
Khulna Divisional Livestock Department's Deputy Director Dr ABM Zakir Hossain, however, said, "Despite several initiatives, the sheep population in the coastal districts has not expanded as expected." Zakir also stressed extensive research in cross-breeding.
If not slaughtered, a sheep's life span stretches to eight years maximum. An adult female crossbred sheep gives birth to two lambs (at most) a year, while the indigenous sheep gives birth to four lambs.
"This is a disadvantage of a crossbred sheep. We have to provide subsidies in special veterinary treatment and care for their better reproduction," said Ratan Kumar Adhikary, Khulna Regional Manager of Heed Bangladesh.
He added that the radius of pasture around the coastal belt shrinks in the monsoon when the level of tide increases, "sheep, like goats, cannot forage frequently during that time."
Moreover, there is a concern over Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) or "Goat Plague," which is a highly contagious viral disease of sheep and goats.
"Farmers should ensure on-time vaccination and hygiene accommodation of the sheep," Professor Safiqul warned.
