BSS, Rajshahi :In addition to Monira Begum, more than 11,500 rural people most of them women in the region are now passing their busiest days in taking care of their bulls in order to sell those in the forthcoming sacrificial cattle markets.”I, myself, prepare straw, grass and other fodders and wash both the bulls and barn regularly,” said Monira, 38, while talking to BSS in her semi-pucca house in Gangdhopapara village under Puthiya Upazila of the district.Her neighbour Sazbar Ali, 43, having four bulls, narrated his success story of the business. At least 36 other families of the locality are fattening bulls to catch the lucrative sacrificial cattle market. “We see an income-generation atmosphere in the village over the bull fattening,” Taleb says.Already, they have replaced their traditional domestic cattle-rearing process with modern and commercial one.They become habituated to various money transactions including borrowing loans from different banks for purchasing bulls alongside repaying those in due time.With intervention of various projects, the producers formed Medium and Small Enterprise (MSE) in the Gangdhopapara village with a noble intention of making their bull fattening trade profitable and sustainable. Various government and non-government organizations have been implementing the projects in order to the best uses of existing potentialities in the sector.The initiative were taken to disseminate the good 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 Gangdhopapara, around 11,200 rural people are operating 395 bull fattening MSEs in 17 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabgonj, Natore and Pabna districts with the projects, said Abdul Awal, Divisional Deputy Director of Department of Animal Resource.He added that the producers have adopted new and improved skills, practices and technologies in bull fattening contributing to enhanced production and productivity.The size of the market has expanded due to the growing active role of large and small-scale private companies.Line Agencies 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 4500 per month. Routinely, they extend different modern technology to the producers through setting demonstration plot in the locality.Besides, they organize community meeting with the help of private companies for building 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 Dr Mizanur Rahman 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 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.
