Socioeconomic Study on Beef Fattening Farming System at Some Selected Areas of Kurigram District

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of the research was to evaluate the economic well-being of livestock producers and the current methods of beef fattening in certain regions of Kurigram district of Bangladesh. In May to August of 2022, 100 randomly chosen farms filled out a standardized questionnaire for this research. Age, education, employment, family size, land area, money availability, farm size, net income from fattening cattle, and issues with all cattle fattening factors that were analyzed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the financial viability of beef cattle fattening operations in the northern area of Bangladesh. Random selection was used to choose 100 cattle fatteners from three upazila at Kurigram districts that together constitute the largest concentration of fatteners in that region. The residents of Phulbari, Nageswari and Bhurungamari area were polled in order to compile socio-economic statistics and information on the fattening of cattle respectively. The socio-economic features of beef producers were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the profitability of the beef market was determined using the profit function and discover the factors that impact the profitability of beef cattle. Despite the fact that beef cattle raising is a lucrative enterprise, the majority of farmers still use traditional beef fattening methods. These methods of beef fattening target the cattle selling during Eid-ul-Adha, a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims. The margin of profitability for each beef cattle from all farms were calculated to be BDT 14017.5 Since the overall benefit cost ratio for the enterprise was calculated to be 1.14 but the medium farms( 6-10 cattle) are more profitable than small( ≤5 cattle) and large(> 10 cattle) farms. The optimum rearing time for beef fattening is 6 months that gives comparatively more profit. It can be concluded that the cattle fattening operation is both practicable and lucrative as a commercial perspective. The high cost of feeds, poor financing facilities, disease outbreaks, the unlawful use of human medications for the purpose of increasing the size of cattle herds, price swings, and a lack of competent extension services are the most significant challenges that farmers face today. Fatteners should be educated on how to formulate local feeds to reduce cost and access to feeds for better efficiency, and the use of human drugs, tablets, and injections for cattle fattening should be discouraged. The focus of policy and research should be on the production of feeds at prices that are affordable to fatteners. These findings may be utilized by Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development extension workers to spread the practice of beef cattle fattening to the areas of the country where it is not yet common.

Economic Analysis, Beef cattle, Fattening, Profitability, lucrative enterprise.