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It’s been nearly two years since Borhanul Hasan Chowdhury Saleheen, the youngest son of late former Chattogram mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury, started livestock farming — even though he has a business degree from a university in the UK and two restaurants in the port city.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, which almost collapsed the global economy, began and his restaurants were closed during the lockdown, Borhanul decided to start a farm for dairy and cattle rearing on the premises of his family house in the city’s Chosma Hill area.
“I studied management and human resources. I have other businesses and I am also involved in politics. But I still come to the farm every day and supervise my employees on health and diet management of the cattle,” he told The Business Post.
“We have 100 cows right now and 70 of them will be sold as sacrificial animals during Eid-ul-Azha. One of these cows has already been sold at Tk 5 lakh,” Borhanul said. Like Borhanul, Wasif Ahamed Salam is another who has completed higher studies abroad and is involved in livestock farming in the port city.
Wasif is the son of MA Salam, the chairman of Asian Group — which is famous for its garments, aluminium and hotel businesses in Chattogram.
In the past few years, Wasif established his own successful cattle farm, Asian Agro. The farm had at least 450 cows ready for sale during the upcoming Eid. Half of them have already been sold.
Talking to The Business Post, he said, “I started with four cows back in 2015. Soon after I went abroad to study but it was somewhat operational on that small scale.
“After I returned home in 2018, I decided to launch a full-fledged cattle farm. And now, we have at least 600 cows on the farm.”
Urban livestock farming is gaining popularity among the port city’s youths, who are highly educated and modern-minded, in the backdrop of the pandemic when businesses suffered losses and jobs became scarce.
Some city dwellers raise cows as a hobby but many of the educated youths have started taking it as a profession, said Chattogram District Livestock Officer Delwar Hossain.
“These urban farmers are raising animals in a much more planned and scientific way, which is why their production and income are very good,” he added.
Passion becoming profession
According to the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), there are more than 8,000 cattle farms in the Chattogram district and 70 of them are in Chattogram city. Most of them have been established and developed by young entrepreneurs.
Apart from them, there are also hundreds of others who raise two or three cows on a small scale in the backyards or open spaces of their houses and sell them to the local market or during Eid-ul-Azha.
DLS says many of the urban farms had engaged in animal husbandry in the wake of the pandemic.
Chittagong Cattle Farmers Association has around 86 urban farmers as members. They are connected through a Facebook group where they discuss their problems and all types of issues and help each other.
One of the association coordinators, Borhanul said, “I had completed several online courses on animal husbandry and livestock food preparation when I started my farm amid the Covid lockdown.”
“Afterwards, I build more and better infrastructure and gradually collected cows of the best breeds. Now I take care of them regularly,” he added.
The association’s Facebook group has also become a great place for learning many things about this sector as the members share their problems and experiences, said Borhanul.
Sources said members of this association have supplied at least 10,000 sacrificial animals to the Chattogram market for this Eid.
DLS officials said the Chattogram market will need at least 8,20,000 sacrificial animals during Eid and at least 50,000 of them will have to be brought from other parts of the country.
