April 15, 2011
Animal feed crisis puts Bangladeshi district farms in trouble
Dairy and poultry farm owners in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh are facing problems due to acute crisis of poultry and dairy feed.
Md Edris Miah, a local farm owner, said that although dairy and poultry farms have grown in numbers in the district rapidly, no dairy and poultry feed factory was established to meet the daily requirements.
Many unemployed youths, taking loans from the department of Youth Development (DYD) and local NGO''s established small farms here to make themselves self reliant, they also said.
According to District Livestock Office (DLO), there are some 723 broiler chicken farms, 69 layer chicken farms, 149 duck farms, eight goat farms, four sheep farms and 1,696 milk producing cow farms. District Dairy and Poultry Farm Owners Association said, the actual number is much higher than the government statistics.
The association, despite its ignorance about the actual figure, informed that the district has 210 layer chicken farms, 170 duck farms and 950 broiler chicken farms.
Besides, there are 482,785 cows, 2,565 buffaloes, 110,705 goats, 21,553 sheeps, 98 horses, 738 other animals and 775,690 ducks, 2.10 million hens and 13,816 other birds in the district, office sources.
The small farm owners are in trouble with this potential sector because of price hike and scarcity of dairy and poultry feed.
They expressed apprehension that they might be forced to shut down their farms in the near future if the prices of dairy and poultry feed continue to rise. The farm owners are completely dependent on the dairy and poultry feed coming from other districts in absence of feed in the district.
District Livestock Officer (DLO), Brahmanbaria Dr Ashish Kumar Paul said, "The livestock department staff is monitoring the dairy and poultry farms all the times. They have also taken steps to increase awareness against bird-flu and anthrax among those who nourish animals and birds everyday. Besides, the department is trying to save dairy and poultry farm owners by its distributing micro-credit loans."