The Sharatnagar livestock market in Bhangura municipality, Pabna, is a hub of the area's rural economy, and more animals change hands there than at any other market in the district, Prothom Alo reports. It used to sit only on Saturdays; demand now brings it twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays.
Local medium and large cattle, buffalo, goats and sheep are sold there, and traders and farmers come from neighbouring districts as well as from the area. Nobody knows exactly when the market began, but older residents say there was a market here before the Pakistan era.
Local trader Khandaker Mohammad Bachchu Mondal says his father was in the trade 50 years ago, when cattle came by boat along the Baral river. With the river reduced to a dead channel and the roads improved, boats have almost stopped; animals now arrive by minitruck, nosimon and pickup. Goats, poultry, fish and vegetables are also sold at the market, and a jute market sits on other days.
In recent years more buffalo have appeared. Their numbers are still small, but rising demand for buffalo meat in Dhaka and other cities is raising their value. Before Eid al-Adha the market grows many times over.
Farmer Abdul Jabbar recently bought two calves there for Tk 57,500. People trust local cattle more, he says. The market also feeds a food trade: Md Sohel, who has run a food stall for 15 or 16 years, says there are about 20 eateries and each sells 60 to 90 kg of beef on market days.
Photo: Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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