Sustainable Development of Environment Friendly Commercial Poultry Industry in Bangladesh

Book excerpt: Poultry meat is known as global product and it is the fastest growing component of global meat production, consumption and marketing. In the line of global market demand of poultry meat, poultry farms in Bangladesh are growing fast in recent times. Again, agriculture generated 39% of the GDP and the share of the livestock sub-sector is 2.8% (Brammer et. al., 1996). Further, with increasing population and decreasing land holdings, the poultry population is increasing at the rate of 6.5% per year (Huque & Stem, 1993). Mainly due to population growth, there is a gap between supply and demand of poultry meats and eggs. As such, a number of studies were found to have been conducted over the various aspects of this sector of economy in Bangladesh or elsewhere in the subject area. But study on “sustainable development of environment friendly commercial poultry industry in Bangladesh” seems to have attracted little attention embracing various relevant aspects of sustainable development of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The discussions made below will clearly support this assumption: Huque and Ukil (1993) studied the distribution of poultry birds according to land holdings in Bangladesh. Huque and Stem (1994) made an analysis of the current status of poultry production and marketing system of Bangladesh. Das et. al. (2007) reviewed the current status of poultry production and its future prospects in Bangladesh covering both rural and commercial poultry production. He opined that industrialists need to come forward to provide funds to universities and research works on poultry industry covering its different dimensions. Raihan and Mahmud (2008) studied the linkage between trade and poverty alleviation. They argued that the poultry sector should protect from fierce foreign competition adopting various measures like high levels of import duty, import levy and the likes. Alam (1997) identified that the poultry contributed the improvement of socio-economic status, consumption capability, empowerment, new income and employment opportunities for the poultry farmers. The review of the early works on the same subjects area in Bangladesh and else where evidence that sustainable development of environment friendly poultry industry as a whole or various aspects of sustainability in context of poultry industry was not examined in detail through research works. This research gap motivated the present researcher to undertake this study on “sustainable development of environment friendly commercial poultry industry in Bangladesh”