Bangladesh has experienced sizeable growth in agriculture and its affiliated agro-industries, although the country's dairy industry remains impervious to such progress. Despite the mounting demand for beef and dairy products in Bangladesh, there is hardly any sign of significant expansion in the dairy sector. Perhaps, minimal availability and high price of the fodder along with a countrywide shortage of grazing lands hinder the development of dairy industry. As a result, this sector has failed to live up to all our expectations and demonstrated a static growth.
Since Bangladesh is a densely-populated country with an acute shortage of empty spaces, trend shows that the essential demand of land has skyrocketed due to its extensive value in both agriculture and industry. Nevertheless, the rapid growth in real estates has created intense pressure on the availability of land for other sectors along with the fact that industrial expansion is amplifying a similar pressure on land use - weakens the country's existing opportunities of facilitating its dairy industry. So, the theory of opportunity cost applies here with the land being used in more profitable areas.
No matter what the theory of profit maximisation suggests, there is an urgent need to focus on real incentives for the dairy industry. Stockpiling cattle is relevant to other sectors as much as dairy production. Currently, Bangladesh is not capable of meeting the demand for cattle. India and Myanmar are respectively the world's top two cattle-owners, although India has imposed new restrictions on its age-old cattle trade with Bangladesh. Due to Hindu prohibition against the consumption of beef, the Indian government has restricted exporting cattle to Bangladesh - dependent on Indian cattle for beef and dairy products. This has already affected the Bangladeshi market - price of beef has gone up to Tk.400 and is expected to increase soon. Annually, 2 million cattle on average are imported from India in unofficial ways through different border checkpoints with an approximate cost of Tk.35 billion. 50 per cent of this import takes place during the two Eid seasons.
In addition to the production and consumption of beef, Bangladesh earns significant amount of money by exporting leather and leathered products. Obviously, any shortage of supply will pose threat to the leather industry. Meeting the demand with the existing domestic stock is considered beneficial as it can double the price, although this is unlikely due to market recession.
Apart from the insensitivities, there are positive outcomes too! If Indian supply sources are restricted permanently then we have no other choice but to develop our cattle-stock at any cost. Importing from countries like Australia, New Zealand or EU is not likely to become viable due to extremely-high transport costs. Likewise, the supply capacity of Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan is much lower than India. The country should move forward to develop the stock of cattle on priority basis, although it is very difficult to source and stock more than 2 million cattle overnight. Various governments are providing subsidies to their farmers for enhancing their livestock sector. Bangladesh has also taken a number of measures to develop and expand this sector in the rural areas regardless of meagre outputs. The demand supply gap has been minimised through the uninterrupted supply of Indian cattle via border checkpoints. Unfortunately, the scenario is bound to change if India permanently restricts its cattle export causing a severe impact for the Bangladeshi consumers of beef and dairy products.
For Bangladesh, ensuring growth in the livestock sector is a matter of life and death. The coastal belt of the south and its adjacent chars (deltaic river islands) are less suitable for agriculture while many chars are being used for shrimp and aquaculture. Some are barren lands not being utilised for any purpose. Newly-emerged lands are being grabbed by influential locals. By occupation, most of the temporary settlers in these chars are fishermen. In the coastal areas, agricultural land is limited to wet-season cropping because soil salinity is high during dry seasons. The coastal terrain comprises diverse features - dominated by medium-high conditions, and followed by highland, medium-low land and lowland combinations. The government should turn this vast region into a special dairy industrial zone. These lands can be easily utilised for cattle-grazing fields and developing cattle-stock through improvised infrastructures and supportive features.
Recently, Bangladesh Bank has declared its agricultural-rural credit policy - instructing the banks to implement targeted credit portfolio in the agriculture sector. Failing to comply with can result in locking the undistributed fund in the bank without paying any interest. In fact, this will improve the agriculture, although we should remember that banks are business entities which tend to invest in areas where a return is either assured or higher compared to others. Nonetheless, their stakeholders should not be affected by their policies - if they are forced to invest in a troubled sector, chances are there that loans will be illegitimately disbursed to some entrepreneurs without any verification of their worth. Ultimately, the list of loan defaulters in the agro-industrial sector will increase and fund constraints can restrict future investments in agriculture. Instead, Bangladesh Bank should guide them in investments for the dairy sector. By creating the 'dairy industrial zone', the government can offer incentives to the entrepreneurs in coastal areas to avail the opportunity. Incentives should include - tax holidays, providing energy and security, developing the communication and transportation infrastructures, and ensuring the access to information technology. A comprehensive public-private partnership can formulate such initiatives. Since coastal areas are the disaster-prone territories of Bangladesh, they face countless crises - public security, land dispute with corrupt politicians, and the lack of infrastructural and transport facilities - which individual investors cannot tackle or even become anxious to face. Only a governmental policy with firm commitment to develop the sector can easily turn this area into a prospective economic zone. In this regard, research on technical and commercial feasibility is highly required to maximise the livestock potential.
Simultaneously, developing the sector will allow relative sectors to flourish - such as leather, biogas and organic fertilisers. The marginal demand of synthetic fertilisers will prevent environmental pollution. Organic fertilisers play crucial role to retain the productivity of agriculture in balance with a pollution-free environment. The country will be able to save a significant amount of foreign currency, spent for imports.
Dairy industry is labour-intensive. The development of this sector in the coastal areas will create job opportunity for a large number of people, who live below the poverty line. Besides, commercial production of organic fertilisers will be realised.
Undoubtedly, failure in improving the livestock and dairy sectors will cause socio-economic troubles in Bangladesh. There would be shortage of animal protein. Eventually, this increases demand and price of other animal protein sources like fish and chicken will cause food inflation in the long run. The leather sector would face shortage of raw leathers and export would decrease. The dairy industry may also face difficulties. Considering all these aspects, the government and concerned policymakers should come forward.
The writer is an assistant professor at Royal University of Dhaka. seahsan@gmail.com
\\\'Chars\\\' can reinforce Bangladesh\\\'s dairy industry
Syed Ejaz Ahsan | Published: August 22, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
These lands can be easily utilised for cattle-grazing fields and developing cattle-stock
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