ZCZC
BSS-02
COMMERCIAL-DUCK-FARMING (with picture)
Commercial duck farming gains popularity in Rajshahi
RAJSHAHI, July 15, 2019 (BSS)- Commercial duck farming has been gaining
popularity in the region because the grassroots people including the
marginalized ones are getting benefits from it in many ways.
“Many people including poor and marginal families have become economically
solvent by rearing ducks alongside trading of the domestic bird and its egg,”
said Kolyan Kumar Fouzder, Divisional Deputy Director of Department of
Livestock Services.
He says there are more than 3,500 duck farms, up by around fifty percent
than that of last ten years, in Rajshahi division comprising eight districts.
Duck farming has become more profitable and sustainable, where Beel areas and
wetlands are situated, he mentioned.
Kolyan Fouzder added that 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 the business making their own
employment source.
Mahmuda Khatun, 42, a resident of Barshapara village under Godagari
upazila, has been able to eradicate the poverty cycle after finding the way
of a better livelihood though self-employment.
Earning money from duck farming and a grocery shop has now become a
consistent source of income, which is gradually increasing due to rising
local demands.
“The income has driven-out my long-lasting poverty and financial hardship
and uncertainty those I had before,” said Mahmuda.
The transformation in her life began in 2012. Initially, she received a
loan worth Taka 5,000 from her 60-member Village Development Committee (VDC)
and established a small-scale duck farm at her home.
“Ducks farming is less expensive, simple and commercially viable,” she
said sharing her experience. She said that she made good profit by selling
ducks and eggs at the local markets, and eventually opened a grocery shop
with earning from the farm.
“Now, I’m very happy as I have found the path of regular earning through
operating the shop and the duck farm successfully,” added Mahmuda Khatun, who
has no educational background.
Mozammel Haque, a rural jobless person who completed graduation and failed
to get a job, is presently owner of a duck farm and now able to manage his
family properly. He is an inhabitant of Krishnapur village.
Dr Hemayetul Islam of Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary
Science in 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.
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,
Dr Islam added.
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