Cattle fattening makes rural people income generators

More than 12,500 rural people most of them women in the region are now passing their busiest days in taking care of their domestic cattle to sell those in the ongoing sacrificial cattle markets. 

"I, myself, prepare straw, grass and other fodders and wash her fattening cattle regularly," said Anjuman Ara Begum, 43, while talking to BSS in her semi-pucca house in Gogram village under Godagari Upazila of the district. 

Her neighbour Abdus Sattar, 53, having four bulls, narrated his success story of the business. At least 43 other families of the locality are fattening cattle including bulls to catch the lucrative sacrificial cattle market. 

"We see an income-generation atmosphere in the village over the bull fattening," he added. 

Already, they have replaced their traditional domestic cattle-rearing process with modern and commercially potential ones. 

They become habituated to various money transactions including borrowing loans from different public and private commercial banks for purchasing bulls alongside repaying those in due time. 

The farmers formed Medium and Small Enterprise (MSE) in Premtaly village with a noble intention of making their bull fattening business profitable and sustainable. 

The initiative was taken to disseminate the best learning and practices to other neighbours to elevate their socio-economic condition and more women empowerment through boosting the sector that can meet the country's protein deficiency. 

Like Premtaly, around 12,500 rural people are operating more than 425 cattle fattening MSEs in 17 Upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Natore and Pabna districts, said Kollyan Kumar Fouzder, Divisional Deputy Director of Department of Livestock Services. 

He added that the producers have adopted new and improved skills, practices and technologies in cattle fattening contributing to enhanced production and productivity. 

All the line departments have become proactive towards supporting market actors especially Local Service Providers (LSPs) and Service Providers Associations (SPAs) by dint of their complementary roles in extension services.      

In practice, the LSPs provide training, advice and input to the producers and earn on an average Tk 4000 per month. Routinely, they extend different modern technology to the producers by setting a demonstration plot in the locality. 

They organize community meeting for generating public awareness about quality inputs. 
     
In all the MSE areas, service contracts were established to provide regular necessary services and inputs to the farmers. SPA has a good collaboration and linkage with line departments and private companies. As a result, a win-win business model has been developed among them. 

District Livestock Officer Humayun Kabir told BSS that the venture promotes various value-addition activities of bull fattening which reflected a sustainable economic change of the poorest people particularly women. 

Many of the rural families have been rearing and fattening bulls commercially and earning huge profits every year. In the wake of the expansion of modern technology, the animal husbandry sector is flourishing in the areas boosting the local economy that reduces import of sacrificial animals from India, he added. 

Meanwhile, sacrificial animals are being brought to the various cattle markets including city hat, Nawhata, Baneshwar, Rajabari, Mohishalbari, Damkura and Chowbaria.