A window to poverty alleviation

The government's 'national programme for poverty alleviation

through goat tending' has created great enthusiasm among the poor in the areas.

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Many of the ultra poor this correspondent talked to during a recent survey said they earned good profits in last one and a half years. The programme was launched two years back.

The government distributed Tk 23 crore soft loans among 52,156 poor people in the districts through Livestock Department, Social Welfare Department, BRDB (Bangladesh Rural Development Board), nationalized banks and NGOs for goat rearing.

The districts include Kushtia, Jhenidah, Meherpur, Chaudanga, Magura, Jessore, Khulna, Narail, Satkhira and Bagerhat.

More Tk 2.6 crore is being distributed this year.

Of the amount, the Livestock Department distributed Tk 2 crore, BRDB and Social Welfare Depart-ment Tk 8 crore, public sector banks Tk 6 crore and NGOs Tk 9 crore.

Sources said people who got the loans reared 1,74,872 goats last year.

Fifty-five out of 59 upazilas in this region have been brought under the programme. Terakhada and Kira upazila in Khulna; and Sharankhola and Morelganj upazilas in Bagerhat are not included in the programme.

The goatskin produced in the country is in very good demand abroad because it is the best in the world, sources said.

It is known as 'Black Bengal' in foreign markets because most of the goats in Bangladesh are black.

Zinarul Islam, a 35- year old young man of Jagarkundi village in Mehrpur, said the profit he earned from goat rearing was beyond his imagination some months back.

"I earned Tk 20,000 by selling only10 goats, which I had bought with Tk 10,000 only eight months back. Zinarul got Tk 15,000 loan from Kushtia Social Welfare Department office.

This year Zinarul is tending 25 goats with a target to earn Tk 50,000.

Union Parishad member Rokeya Khatun is tending 27 goats in Dudhkumra village in Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia.

Last year she tended 11 goats and earned about Tk 8000, she said.

About 500 families in the areas are tending goats.

But all of them have a common problem. Scarcity of vaccine is the main problems, they said.

"The government is giving us loan but not supplying vaccine and medicine to treat diseases of our goats", said Salim Ahamed of Dudh-kumra village. He is tending 20 goats.

Goat fodder is another problems because pasturelands are few, he said.

Veterinarians of the Livestock Department never visit our houses, they said. They demand money when we take our sick goats to their office at the upazila haedquarter, many goat farmers alleged.

The government should come forward with more facilities to encourage people in this profitable business, they said.