Chicken farming turns many poor self-reliant in Rajshahi div

Jamila Begum, 35, wife of a day-labourer, Mominul Islam, is now at the threshold of eradicating her long-lasting poverty through household-based chicken rearing through modern method. Jamila, mother of three daughters and a son and a resident of Bargachhi village at Paba upazila in Rajshahi, embarked on the mission of achieving self reliance early 2012. At the preliminary stage, she received training on chicken rearing along with its proper feeding, vaccination and marketing by the Local Service Providers (LSP). In the current year, she earned Tk 2100 after selling eggs and chicken. She said both demand and market price of native chicken variety is higher than that of others. After becoming a part of her 25-member of a local cooperative society, Jamila enjoys some extra privileges of poultry rearing and marketing. Elder daughter, Monira Parveen, a student of class nine of her village school, gets all institutional expenses from her mother’s earning that encourages her to higher education in the days ahead. Like Jamila Begum, many other households of the poverty-stricken community are involved in the poultry rearing activities. Like the Bargachhi, more than 8,500 poor and extreme poor households most of them are women have developed 214 chicken rearing societies in 17 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Natore and Pabna districts. Animal nutritionist Azizul Islam said that many of the rural households have now become involved in chicken rearing commercially through various government and NGO level interventions which is a good sign for eradicating rural poverty, according to a news agency.