Socio-economic status of buffalo farmers and the management practices of buffaloes in selected areas of Bagerhat District of Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the socio-economic status of the buffalo farmers and the management practices of buffaloes at different villages of Boraikhali, Hoglabunia and Khawlia union of Morrelgonj upazilla in Bagerhat district of Bangladesh. A total of 60 respondents (20 from each union) were randomly selected from three unions. The data was collected through personal interviewing with pre-tested questioner. The investigation revealed that buffalo rearing was practiced by the middle (30-40 years) and old (>40 years) aged farmers than the young (<30 years). Majority (82%) of the buffalo farmers are educated but only 12% are illiterate. The major occupation of the selected farmers are buffalo rearing (50%) followed by crop production, dairying and poultry rearing. The buffalo farmers basically have no training skills but practiced buffalo rearing as their family profession and 30% of them are influenced by the neighboring buffalo farmers. The buffalo farmers purchased usually one pair of buffalo and reared at least for 2 years. The farmers fed their buffalos with locally available roughages and tree leaves but they did not practice concentrate feeding. The CP contents of the available feedstuffs are comparable and even higher and the CF content was found lower compared to other unconventional feedstuffs indicated the availability of good quality feeds for buffaloes in the studied areas. Semiintensive feeding system was practiced for rearing buffaloes followed by extensive feeding system.Majority of the buffalo farmers allowed wallowing buffaloes for once or twice in a day for at least 1-2 hours. The major diseases of buffaloes found in the studied areas were foot and mouth followed by black quarter, anthrax and hemorrhagic septicemia. Most of the buffalo farmers practiced vaccination and deworming regularly. The average cost of one pair of buffalo was 60000-200000 BDT. The annual total cost of production was Tk 5,070, while a gross return was Tk 15,630 per buffalo. The annual food and cloth purchasing capacity of the buffalo farmers were found to be increased to 62.85 and 58.33%, respectively. Similarly, the ability to maintain social status, health care, education and housing of the buffalo farmers were also increased through buffalo rearing. Considering all this parameters related to livelihood, it was clearly found that the socio-economic status of the buffalo farmers was improved through buffalo rearing although the management practices need to be improved with scientific approaches.

Status of buffalo farmers and buffaloes at Subornochar upozila of Noakhali district in Bangladesh

“…Incidence of diseases is a major constraint of livestock production which not only reduces the productivity but also causes economic loss. Mitra et al, (1995), Sarker et al, (2013) and Gupta et al, (2014) also reported that a serious threat of infectious diseases like FMD, HS and BQ in animals were the main problem. Hence, proper support is required for vaccination against some epidemic viral and bacterial diseases for their prevention and control.…”

“…Like study areas of Bagerhat districts in Bangladesh majority of the farmers were fully dependent on grazing (Sarker et al, 2013). Majority of the respondents kept their buffaloes mainly with extensive system and bathan and very little percentage of the farmer practiced semiintensive system in the study areas.…”

“…In the study area, sixty eight percent of the buffalo farmers were engaged with agriculture along with buffalo rearing and rests of them were engaged with other business. Sarker et al, (2013) reported that 30% of the buffalo farmers of Bagerhat Districts in Bangladesh were fully depended on buffalo rearing. More than half of the respondents are holding land above ten acres, followed by seven to ten acres and rest of them below three acres.…”

“…Buffalo has some significant importance on livelihoods improvement. Buffalo rearing increase livelihood status of the farmers especially for the farm women and development of this sector is the potential path to rural prosperity (Kalash et al, 2009;Sarker et al, 2013). In Bangladesh, the role of buffaloes is not emphasized and the species did not receive the attention of the policy makers and the researchers in accordance with its merits.…”

Economic Evaluation of Buffalo Production in Selected Regions of Bangladesh

“…The annual food and cloth purchasing capacity of the buffalo farmers were found to be increased to 62.85 and 58.33%, respectively. Considering all this parameters related to livelihood, it was clearly found that the socioeconomic status of the buffalo farmers was improved through buffalo rearing although the management practices need to be improved with scientific approaches [10].…”