On Monday afternoon, Abdul Halim, 70, was standing in a pond beside the Monthona bridge in Barabil union of Gangachara upazila, Rangpur, cutting water hyacinth. He keeps four cows at Barabil Chowrapara, and at this point in the season feeding them is his biggest challenge.
Harvesting and threshing have not started in earnest, so there is no new straw, and old straw is expensive in the market. Unable to afford straw at the higher price, he has turned to water hyacinth as stopgap fodder. In the local dialect, Halim said straw costs so much, harvesting has not begun and new straw cannot be had, so he has no choice but to cut hyacinth for the cows.
News Bangla's Rangpur bureau reports that when straw runs short before and after the paddy harvest, low-income householders and small farmers suffer most, since for many of them cattle are the family's main asset and livelihood.
The livestock department advises care. Dr Mahfuzur Rahman, Gangachara upazila livestock officer, said water hyacinth can be fed to cattle, but it must come from a clean, unpolluted pond, be washed well and be mixed in proper amounts with other feed; overfeeding is not advisable.
Cutting the hyacinth, hauling it out, tying bundles and carrying them home on a bamboo pole is hard work at his age, but Halim has to do it himself every day. Like many householders, he is waiting for the aman harvest, when new straw should ease the worry over feed.
Photo: A S M Jobaer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: News Bangla 24
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