Ducks are in demand in the haor region. To meet their own and tourists' demand for meat, local people are turning to duck farming, and with duck meat fetching more this year than in other years, interest among farmers has grown.

Sunamganj, a district of haors and baors, also has countless canals, beels and water bodies, making it a promising place to raise ducks.

Sukanta Pal of Lalarchar village on the outskirts of Sunamganj town once had nothing but a broken-down house. He borrowed money at high interest from a moneylender to start a duck farm and is now a successful duck farmer. Twice a year he brings in ducklings, raises them and sells them, and this has ended his family's money troubles. He has been in the business for five years. For the past two years he, his four brothers and his father Samar Pal, who is over sixty, have spent most of their time working on the farm.

Sukanta Pal said that on the 25th of Ashwin he brought 600 ducklings from Dutta village in Derai at Tk 36 each. Raising them to selling size over five months cost him Tk 70,000. Two days earlier a wholesaler offered Tk 40,000 for 100 of his ducks, but he refused, hoping to sell 100 ducks for Tk 50,000 this time. Selling ducks has made Sukanta a lakhpati.

He is not alone: 4,700 people in the district have set up duck farms, and these farms and households have 2,730,442 ducks.

Sunamganj has many tourist spots visited by people from across the country. Tourists' menus once featured chicken, tasty haor fish and birds, but that has changed, and duck meat is now their first choice.

Samira Chowdhury, visiting from Dhaka, told Jagonews: "I used not to like duck. But after eating duck meat in Sunamganj I found it so tasty that it is now first on my list."

Nadia Begum from Sylhet said she always liked duck curry, but Sunamganj duck has a different taste.

Rahul, Saymon and Jilan from Dinajpur said: "The three of us came to Sunamganj on a trip. Everyone here says duck meat is very tasty, so the three friends had duck for lunch. We will never forget the taste."

District livestock officials said two kinds of duck are raised in Sunamganj: the Khaki Campbell, which originated in England, and the Jinding, which originated in China. Both weigh two to two and a half kilograms when grown.

Monoranjan Das, VFA at the Sunamganj Sadar upazila livestock office, said that if some haor canals and ponds were not leased out, duck farming would grow further and Sunamganj would gain more economically.

District livestock officer Dr Asaduzzaman said the livestock department is giving farmers free vaccines and other necessary support. Duck meat has become popular in Sunamganj, and they are working to see more duck farms set up.

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