The buffalo owners of Pabna’s Chatmohar upazila are in dire straits due to lack of adequate grazing land and high price of buffalo feed.
Although there is no large buffalo farm, many people in Chatmohar keep domesticated buffaloes for farming and transporting crops on buffalo-drawn carts.
From the beginning of the Bengali month of Ashar, rain water starts entering the small and big beels of Chatmohar. As a result, the grazing land of cattle is submerged.
Paddy is kept in the fields till the month of Agrahayan. So, from Ashar to Agrahayan, in these six months the cattle have to be fed bought feed in the area.
At this time the cattle owners have to depend on hay, Khail (Oil cake), wheat bran, chunks of rice and other foods. As the price of these cattle feed has gone up, the buffalo owners are taking their buffaloes out on the streets in the morning to graze them on the roadside grass.
It has been found out that rain water enters the beels of Nimaichara, Handial and Chaikola Union of Chatmohar by the month of Ashar but, the water enters the beels of the remaining eight unions relatively later.
In the dry season it is possible to take the buffalo to the field during the day and feed them on the fallow land but that is not possible in the time between the months of Ashar and Agrahayan due to water remaining on the fields.
At this time, buffalo owners have to rely entirely on hay, Khail, husk and other granular foods to feed their cattle. In the summer months of Baishakh-Jaistha, farmers get some straw from Boro paddy but it is not enough to meet the demand.
As the price of hay is even higher in the lower areas, the hay traders of those areas come to Chatmohar and buy boro paddy straw at high prices.
Straw traders from the highlands of the north-west of the country, including Kushtia, Jashore, Jhenaidah brings hay on rented trucks to Chatmohar for selling at higher prices.
Mojiruddin Sarkar, a buffalo farmer in Dodaria village of Bilchalan union of the upazila, said, “Every 100 bunch of straw is being sold at Tk 400 to 500. Khail is being sold at Tk 35 and wheat bran at Tk 32 per kg.”
“It has become difficult to buy food at such a high price and feed the buffalo. A pair of buffaloes needs food worth about Tk 400 per day. I depend on the money I get from transporting Paddy, Kheshari pulse, wheat, garlic, mustard on the buffalo run cart during the season to run the family”, he lamented.
Although the buffalos can work only three months every year, they have to be fed all year round. Feeding the buffalo roadside grass can help to decrees the relative pressure of providing other food. There is traffic on the road but still they feed the buffalos at risk, for this reason, he added.
Milon Mollah and Liton, two other buffalo owners in the same area, said they, like many others, feed buffaloes on the side of the road to save money. Many people also feed their buffalo water hyacinth collecting them from nearby water body and cutting grass and other vines from roadside.
Upazila Animal Resources Officer Dr Noor-e-Alam Siddiqui said the grazing land of cattle was reduced during the monsoon season. At this time it is not possible to take cows and buffaloes to the field and new paddy is being harvested too. Besides, cattle grazing land has also started to wake up. Soon the crisis will subside, he added.
Water hyacinth is not the ideal food for cattle. Due to the food crisis of cattle, many people feed them on water hyacinth which contains more water. Excessive feeding of water hyacinth may lead to indigestion and loose motion.