Md Azizul Islam started a poultry farm in 2012 with a shed for 1,000 chickens and succeeded in his first year. Inspired by his success, many others went into the business. The poultry farmers of this village now play a big part in the country's economy, and poultry farming is the only source of income for everyone in the village.

This is the story of how Swarnakartila, a backward village in Belchhari union of Matiranga, Khagrachhari, has been transformed. In the space of a dozen years, poultry farming has changed the fortunes of more than a hundred families. With income from the farms, brick houses are going up in place of thatched huts.

A poultry farm has been built at every house in this village, which lacks modern amenities, and many people have become self-reliant through it. Every house in the village seems to be a poultry farm, and the farms have created direct and indirect employment for several thousand people.

In Swarnakartila, about 12 kilometres from the Matiranga upazila town, small and large poultry farms were seen along both sides of the road, in house yards and at the foot of the hills. The farms have sheds for anything from 2,000 to 4,000 chickens.

The village of 130 families has 180 poultry farms, large and small. On average 4 lakh chickens are produced a month, and Tk 10.15 crore worth of chickens are sold from this one village every month, which comes to Tk 121.8 crore a year. After meeting demand in Khagrachhari district, the chickens from this hill village are sold in Feni, Noakhali, Chattogram and Dhaka. Crores of taka change hands at the village's farms every month.

Yet although more than a hundred crore taka of poultry is produced, the farmers are not doing well. They spoke of frustration over the electricity shortage, excessive tolls and rising prices of chicks, feed and vaccines. "We make an important contribution to the country's economy, but nobody looks after us," they said.

The farmers complain that although the country has entered the smart age, Swarnakartila is still in darkness. Electricity has not reached this village that plays a role in the economy. Electric poles and a transformer were installed in 2019, but for unknown reasons no connection was given, so people in an area that pays lakhs of taka in government revenue are deprived of government services.

Farmer Asmaul Islam said: "The prices of chicks, feed and vaccines have gone up, but the price of meat is the same as before. Even if we want to, we cannot wind up this business. All in all, the farmers here are suffering."

Another farmer, Yasir Arafat, spoke of the hardship caused by the lack of electricity: "Electricity is very important for a poultry farm, but our village does not have it."

Md Azizul Islam, who has been in poultry farming since 2012, said: "Now we have to pay tolls at several places for the chickens. On top of that, with feed and chick prices up and production costs rising, we are struggling. If this goes on, we will be ruined."

Matiranga upazila nirbahi officer Daisy Chakraborty said: "The necessary steps will be taken to ensure all facilities in this village transformed by poultry farming. We will talk to the poultry farmers and take steps to solve all their problems."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.