Prospects of dairy farms brighter in northern districts
Saturday, 19 September 2009
RANGPUR, Sept 18 (BSS): The dairy sector, having vast prospects, can bring about a revolutionary change in the socio-economic condition of the poor by alleviating poverty and eradicating monga in poverty-prone greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts.
For this, proper exploration of the prevailing prospects of dairy farm sector is a must through the setting up of related industries to usher in a new era for overall economic advancements to ensure smooth developments and building a digital Bangladesh.
Leaders of the Chambers of Commerce and Industries of these districts told the news agency that enormous prospects are there in the dairy farm sector and asked all concerned for taking necessary steps towards this direction.
Thousands of litres of milk are being produced daily in all eight districts including the monga-prone vast char areas but lack of adequate marketing facilities and milk processing industries are hindering the desired growth of the sector.
Setting up of more dairy farms, milk processing and chilling factories could contribute a lot in changing the economic conditions of the common people and alleviating poverty and eradicating monga once for all, they added.
Presently, the private sector Rangpur Dairy (RD) Milk Processing Factory at Boldipukur near the Rangpur-Dhaka highway under Mithapukur Upazila of Rangpur has created jobs for hundreds of poverty-stricken people.
The Factory authorities have taken up comprehensive steps to support the poor by providing them cows on easy terms to produce milk at home for their financial well being.
While talking to the news agency, manager of RD Factory Ashraful Alam said hundreds of cows have so far been distributed among the poor of Shalaipur, Muradpur and adjoining villages in the upazila under a massive plan of distributing thousands of cows in future.
"We are planning to boost the dairy sector and we are not only thinking about business and trade but also want to make the poor people self-reliant by expanding their income-generating facilities through participatory business," he added.
The beneficiaries have to pay the actual price of the cows by supplying milk to the factories for a certain period till the price of the cows is realised when the RD Factory authority would transfer the ownership of the cows to them, he added.
"We took two cows with calves from the RD factory and they are giving sufficient milk a day to earn a lot of money daily," said villagers Alam Mia and his wife like other successful beneficiaries who have changed their fates during the past couple of years.
"We have overcome monga in recent years very successfully through selling milk we get from the cows of the RD Factory. It was very difficult for us to earn our livelihoods by selling labour even though there is no monga now," said Amena Begum of Shalaipur village.
While narrating the economic impacts of the factory, its Managing Director Fakhruzzaman said that dairy farmers in the whole district are being benefited by selling milk to RD Factory side by side with the beneficiaries of the industry.
Dairy farmers, who were in distress and frustration in the district and were about to close their farms due to frequent loss even a few years back, are now getting profit by selling their milk to the RD Factory.
Officials told BSS that the RD Factory is now producing a large quantity of quality pasteurized milk and milk with fruit flavours and supplies the products to the northern districts and capital city of Dhaka as the business was growing faster.
"We have a comprehensive plan to turn the RD Factory into one of the biggest milk processing industries of the country by involving over 30,000 people of Rangpur and its adjoining districts in the region in the near future," they added.
"At RD we are producing quality butter and sweets by setting up necessary infrastructures using quality equipment and machineries and we could do better if we got gas and smooth supply of electricity here," they said.
They said that the overall production costs of all products could be reduced even up to fifty per cent if there were supply of natural gas and uninterrupted power supply though they frequently incurred losses due to scarcity of power.
For this, proper exploration of the prevailing prospects of dairy farm sector is a must through the setting up of related industries to usher in a new era for overall economic advancements to ensure smooth developments and building a digital Bangladesh.
Leaders of the Chambers of Commerce and Industries of these districts told the news agency that enormous prospects are there in the dairy farm sector and asked all concerned for taking necessary steps towards this direction.
Thousands of litres of milk are being produced daily in all eight districts including the monga-prone vast char areas but lack of adequate marketing facilities and milk processing industries are hindering the desired growth of the sector.
Setting up of more dairy farms, milk processing and chilling factories could contribute a lot in changing the economic conditions of the common people and alleviating poverty and eradicating monga once for all, they added.
Presently, the private sector Rangpur Dairy (RD) Milk Processing Factory at Boldipukur near the Rangpur-Dhaka highway under Mithapukur Upazila of Rangpur has created jobs for hundreds of poverty-stricken people.
The Factory authorities have taken up comprehensive steps to support the poor by providing them cows on easy terms to produce milk at home for their financial well being.
While talking to the news agency, manager of RD Factory Ashraful Alam said hundreds of cows have so far been distributed among the poor of Shalaipur, Muradpur and adjoining villages in the upazila under a massive plan of distributing thousands of cows in future.
"We are planning to boost the dairy sector and we are not only thinking about business and trade but also want to make the poor people self-reliant by expanding their income-generating facilities through participatory business," he added.
The beneficiaries have to pay the actual price of the cows by supplying milk to the factories for a certain period till the price of the cows is realised when the RD Factory authority would transfer the ownership of the cows to them, he added.
"We took two cows with calves from the RD factory and they are giving sufficient milk a day to earn a lot of money daily," said villagers Alam Mia and his wife like other successful beneficiaries who have changed their fates during the past couple of years.
"We have overcome monga in recent years very successfully through selling milk we get from the cows of the RD Factory. It was very difficult for us to earn our livelihoods by selling labour even though there is no monga now," said Amena Begum of Shalaipur village.
While narrating the economic impacts of the factory, its Managing Director Fakhruzzaman said that dairy farmers in the whole district are being benefited by selling milk to RD Factory side by side with the beneficiaries of the industry.
Dairy farmers, who were in distress and frustration in the district and were about to close their farms due to frequent loss even a few years back, are now getting profit by selling their milk to the RD Factory.
Officials told BSS that the RD Factory is now producing a large quantity of quality pasteurized milk and milk with fruit flavours and supplies the products to the northern districts and capital city of Dhaka as the business was growing faster.
"We have a comprehensive plan to turn the RD Factory into one of the biggest milk processing industries of the country by involving over 30,000 people of Rangpur and its adjoining districts in the region in the near future," they added.
"At RD we are producing quality butter and sweets by setting up necessary infrastructures using quality equipment and machineries and we could do better if we got gas and smooth supply of electricity here," they said.
They said that the overall production costs of all products could be reduced even up to fifty per cent if there were supply of natural gas and uninterrupted power supply though they frequently incurred losses due to scarcity of power.