The dream of Robiul Islam (30), a Sonali chicken farmer in Porsha, Naogaon, has faded after a disease outbreak. Within a week, of the 12,700 birds in the five sheds of his farm, only 700 now remain, a loss of more than Tk 10 lakh. The farmer, registered as "A category" by the livestock office, is at his wits' end and is also worried about repaying loans taken from non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

There are allegations that the upazila livestock officer has to be paid a visit fee when he goes to a farm to give advice. Otherwise, it is said, he will not go to a farm or give advice.

Robiul Islam, an entrepreneur from Jalua village in the upazila, once ran a plastics business, but sales at his shop were low and so was his profit. He gave up the shop and set out to become an entrepreneur. In 2018 he started a farm with broiler chickens for Tk 15,000 and made a profit of about Tk 12,000. As broilers needed more labour and cost more, he dropped them and turned to Sonali chickens. After that he never looked back. With bigger profits his dream grew too, and he expanded the farm to five sheds.

The number of birds of different ages in the five sheds rose to 12,700: 3,500 chicks nine days old, 3,600 birds 58 days old, 2,950 aged 47 days, 3,300 aged 31 days and 2,850 aged 17 days. (The report gives this breakdown alongside the 12,700 total.) The larger birds would have been ready for sale within the next 10 to 15 days. Five employees worked on the farm.

On the night of May 15, four chickens suddenly died in one shed. The next day the number of deaths rose. Wave after wave, within a week they died until about 700 are left now.

Medicines given on the livestock office's advice have not helped. The smaller birds are still fine, although the disease has broken out. The dead chickens have been buried.

"The chickens suddenly started dying from the night after Eid," Robiul Islam said. "When the local livestock officer was told by phone, he did not give it any importance. I was forced to inform the district officer, who came to inspect the farm. He gave advice and took some dead chickens for testing. Livestock officer Dr Md Shariful Islam had come to the farm several times and was paid too. But when I stopped paying, he stopped coming to the farm. He did not even answer when I phoned for advice. If I had got his advice, I might have saved at least some of the chickens."

"I started the farm on the advice of other farmers in the village," he said. "I made good profits a few times, which made me keen to build a big farm. I took loans from various NGOs and expanded. Sales of the big birds would have started within the next 10 to 12 days, but because of the disease all of them have now died. The loss is more than Tk 10 lakh. Had the chickens lived, they would have sold for about Tk 18 to 19 lakh, with a profit of about Tk 5 to 6 lakh. Now everything is finished. The NGO is owed Tk 3 lakh and the feed shop Tk 10 lakh. I am worried about paying this money back."

Asked about it, Porsha Upazila Livestock Officer Dr Md Shariful Islam told Jago News: "The farmer did not tell me earlier about the chickens falling ill. After I was informed, he was given advice."

On taking money, he said: "When we go to give services somewhere outside the office, farmers give some money depending on the distance and the type of disease. But nothing is taken when someone comes to the office for services."

Naogaon District Livestock Officer Md Mohir Uddin said: "Farmer Robiul Islam informed me about his farm on May 17. His farm was inspected on the spot. Some samples of the dead chickens were collected and sent to the laboratory in Joypurhat for testing. The tests found an outbreak of three diseases together: Ranikhet, coccidiosis and Gumboro. The farmer was given some medicines and advice to control the disease, and was told to bury the dead chickens. There may have been some misunderstanding between the farmer and the upazila livestock officer."

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