BSS, Rajshahi
In the wake of gradually increasing nutritional demand and lucrative market price, commercial farming of ducks including gooses are gaining popularity day-by-day in the region for the last couple of years.
Duck products such as eggs and meat have a great demand in the local markets. So, commercial duck farming business is being adjudged as a great source of earning. Many successful farmers are making a high profit from their duck farming business.
Duck farming business has also become a stable employment source. Young unemployed educated people are joining this business making their own employment source. Hundreds of poor and marginal families have become economically solvent by rearing ducks.
There are around 2,000 duck farms in Rajshahi division comprising eight districts and the farming has become more profitable and sustainable where beel areas and wetlands are situated abundantly, said Abdul Awal, divisional deputy Director of Department of Animal Resources.
He said many people raised ducks in both commercial and small scale for meat or egg production purposes. Even, they raised some ducks on their own backyard with other birds or animals.
Mahtab Ali, a rural jobless person who completed graduation and vainly tried to get a job, is presently owner of a duck farm and now able to manage his family properly. He is an inhabitant of Talanda village under Tanore upazila of Rajshahi district.
While talking to the newsman Ali, owner of the farm, said even five years ago, the income of his father, a poor farmer, was not enough to meet even the basic needs of their family.
However, he was committed to doing something positive to change the lot of his family. Therefore, he took short training course from Rajshahi Youth Development Training Center in 2008, and set up a duck farm adjacent to his house.
Some of those poor fishermen families took loan from NGOs and started duck farming at their houses. The Department of Animal Resources also came forward to assist them by supplying improved, hybrid variety of ducklings.
Dr Jalal Uddin Sarder, Prof of Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science of Rajshahi University, said women, particularly the housewives, are mostly involved in rearing ducks of indigenous species.
Ducks need less expensive, simple and non-elaborate housing facilities resulting in very less cost for setting up commercial duck farming business. They are very hardy bird and they need less care or management. They can adopt themselves with almost all types of environmental conditions.
The ducks are mostly fed home-made feed in addition to what they are deriving from scavenging facilities.
Most of the farmers provided rice polish, boiled rice and broken rice as supplementary feed ingredients to ducks either singly or in combination. High price and scarcity of feed during dry season were the major constraints affecting duck production.
Use of natural feed resources in an increasing manner may help in overcoming the feed problem. Regular vaccination and the use of cost-effective balanced diets can have a decisive effect on duck rearing.
As a whole, there are great potentials for an improvement of native duck production in the region by means of nutritional and management engineering, Prof Jalal Sarder added.
In the wake of gradually increasing nutritional demand and lucrative market price, commercial farming of ducks including gooses are gaining popularity day-by-day in the region for the last couple of years.
Duck products such as eggs and meat have a great demand in the local markets. So, commercial duck farming business is being adjudged as a great source of earning. Many successful farmers are making a high profit from their duck farming business.
Duck farming business has also become a stable employment source. Young unemployed educated people are joining this business making their own employment source. Hundreds of poor and marginal families have become economically solvent by rearing ducks.
There are around 2,000 duck farms in Rajshahi division comprising eight districts and the farming has become more profitable and sustainable where beel areas and wetlands are situated abundantly, said Abdul Awal, divisional deputy Director of Department of Animal Resources.
He said many people raised ducks in both commercial and small scale for meat or egg production purposes. Even, they raised some ducks on their own backyard with other birds or animals.
Mahtab Ali, a rural jobless person who completed graduation and vainly tried to get a job, is presently owner of a duck farm and now able to manage his family properly. He is an inhabitant of Talanda village under Tanore upazila of Rajshahi district.
While talking to the newsman Ali, owner of the farm, said even five years ago, the income of his father, a poor farmer, was not enough to meet even the basic needs of their family.
However, he was committed to doing something positive to change the lot of his family. Therefore, he took short training course from Rajshahi Youth Development Training Center in 2008, and set up a duck farm adjacent to his house.
Some of those poor fishermen families took loan from NGOs and started duck farming at their houses. The Department of Animal Resources also came forward to assist them by supplying improved, hybrid variety of ducklings.
Dr Jalal Uddin Sarder, Prof of Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science of Rajshahi University, said women, particularly the housewives, are mostly involved in rearing ducks of indigenous species.
Ducks need less expensive, simple and non-elaborate housing facilities resulting in very less cost for setting up commercial duck farming business. They are very hardy bird and they need less care or management. They can adopt themselves with almost all types of environmental conditions.
The ducks are mostly fed home-made feed in addition to what they are deriving from scavenging facilities.
Most of the farmers provided rice polish, boiled rice and broken rice as supplementary feed ingredients to ducks either singly or in combination. High price and scarcity of feed during dry season were the major constraints affecting duck production.
Use of natural feed resources in an increasing manner may help in overcoming the feed problem. Regular vaccination and the use of cost-effective balanced diets can have a decisive effect on duck rearing.
As a whole, there are great potentials for an improvement of native duck production in the region by means of nutritional and management engineering, Prof Jalal Sarder added.
