Agriculture drives Bangladesh's economy, but livestock is also vital. Rearing cattle and poultry, a long rural tradition, has become a solid economic foundation and a leading source of animal protein, contributing to nutrition, jobs and the economy. According to the Department of Livestock Services, the sector accounts for 1.81 percent of GDP, with 3.19 percent growth, 16.54 percent of agricultural GDP and a value of Tk 91,036 crore.

The stunted, weak cattle common in the 1980s are no longer seen. Modern management and commercialisation have transformed the sector, drawing in hundreds of thousands of educated young people. Many farmers now have smartphones, and ICT is used to monitor poultry and dairy farms and manage markets. Cattle and poultry behaviour can be watched remotely through cameras and the internet, and large farms use Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to control ventilation, temperature and humidity from home or office. Breed improvement, better services, AI and IoT have brought revolutionary change, the writer says.

• The country has about 25.171 million cattle, 1.532 million buffaloes, 3.981 million sheep, 27.291 million goats and 406.652 million poultry.
• In 1971-72, production was 1 million tonnes of milk, 0.5 million tonnes of meat and 1.5 billion eggs; in 2024-25 it was 15.5 million tonnes of milk, 8.954 million tonnes of meat and 24.4 billion eggs.
• Bangladesh is self-sufficient in meat and eggs and has met all demand for sacrificial animals from domestic sources for several years.
• About 200 million of the roughly 300 million square feet of leather produced each year is exported, earning about Tk 9,600 crore, according to the Bangladesh Tanners Association.
• The poultry industry is the second largest employer, with more than Tk 40,000 crore of private investment, 85,227 registered commercial and about 191,000 marginal farms, and about 66.8 million eggs a day.

Bangladesh held its first National Livestock Week, from 26 November to 2 December 2025, under the slogan "Native breeds, modern technology: livestock will prosper". Artificial insemination of native cows with improved breeds is raising productivity, with about 4.2 million doses of semen supplied each year. The government has administered 1.7 million doses of lumpy skin disease vaccine, zoning for foot-and-mouth disease eradication and about 60 million doses of PPR vaccine for goats. The writer stresses that native breeds must be protected so their basic traits are not lost in crossbreeding.

Despite high production, 15 to 20 million people remain malnourished; the UN says at least 10 percent of the population is affected, many of them women and children. An adult needs 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight a day. Milk, eggs and meat must be affordable for the poor if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be met.

The writer is a public relations officer at the Fisheries and Livestock Information Office, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.

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