Goat fattening changes lot of Rajshahi low-income people

RAJSHAHI, June 25 (BSS): In addition to beef fattening, the venture of goat fattening has become popular as many marginalised families have become self-reliant in the region, including its vast Barind tract.
Apart from commercial farming, many of the villagers are seen rearing different species of goat, including black Bengal, either in house or homestead areas in their native way.
According to the latest official data, around 5.25 lakh goats have been fattened in farms and houses ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha in the district.
Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), a state-owned anti-poverty organisation, has been extending financial and technical support to the farmers in association with various non-government development organisations, including Sataful Bangladesh (SB).
Sohel Rana and his wife Rima Khatun, are both graduates of Daulatpur village under Bagmara Upazila, have started goat rearing ventures at their house, failing to get a government job around five years back.
Since then, they have reared goats and sold them in sacrificial animal markets before Eid and in the way, the couple became self-reliant.
Two years back, they found a goat fattening farm adjacent to their house.
Talking to the news agency on Saturday, Sohel Rana said they fattened around 30 goats after purchasing kids at Tk 1.80 lakh in the current year. They sold eight of those at Tk 1.70 lakh and the rest are expected to be sold at around Tk 4.25 lakh.
He said many rural families have been rearing and fattening goats commercially and earning huge profits every year.
Some poor and marginalised people, including women, have achieved tremendous success in the sector.
For the last couple of years, many villagers have been fattening their goats using natural methods.
They use only straw, molasses, oilcake, gram, black-gram, green grass and wheat bran as feed instead of any steroid tablets or injection.
SB Executive Director Nazim Uddin Mollah said they are providing financial and technical assistance to the village-level entrepreneurs towards establishing goat farms and many of the beneficiaries have become self-reliant in the meantime.
District Livestock Officer Dr Zulfikar Muhammad Akhter Hossain said there is an immense prospect of rearing and fattening goats.
There are more than 100 goat fattening farms in the district. Besides, each of the the farming families rears two to five goats in houses.