Tongi is an important town between Dhaka and Gazipur. Its bustle begins as soon as you cross the Abdullahpur bridge from Uttara, and this stretch of the Mymensingh road never seems to sleep. Long-distance and local buses run from here, shops line both sides of the road, and pedestrians, shoppers and traffic keep it busy day and night. On Sundays the activity multiplies as the weekly market joins the crowd, with car horns on one side and the calls of people, animals and birds on the other.

From Sunday morning one side of the market becomes another world: rows of cages, baskets and bamboo coops, the flapping of wings and the cooing of pigeons. Native chickens and a range of birds and animals are on sale, but on entering one side of the market the eye falls on rows of duck cages, full of white, black and speckled ducks of many breeds. Of all the birds, ducks are the most numerous, so calling Tongi's weekly market a "kingdom of ducks" seems fitting. Young birds and animals, native chickens and ducklings of various breeds are also sold.

At the market, a young man was buying ducklings. He is Tonmoy, a university student with a family home in Uttarkhan, Dhaka, who also runs a small business. "I took up duck rearing out of an interest in doing something new alongside my studies," he said. "I bought six ducklings here, choosing the China breed mainly for meat. For now I want to rear them on a small scale and see how they grow, what advantages or difficulties there are and how the results turn out."

Tonmoy said: "If everything looks good after the first round, I plan to expand gradually and start it as a business. But my aim is not only profit. I want it to be of some service to ordinary people too, so in future I would like to sell ducks to them with a limited profit."

On one side of the market, many traders sit with rows of duck cages, and the area rings with quacking and the calls of sellers. Ducks that give more meat are the most common, and buyers come from far away. One trader, Selim, has been in the duck business for 17 years and has sold regularly at Tongi market for the past two years. He and three partners also take ducks to other markets in Dhaka and Gazipur, selling at 24 markets a month in all.

Busy showing ducks to buyers, Selim said: "We buy ducks from various village farms and sell them at different markets. We bring about 500 ducks in each consignment. Buyers want ducks by age, size and breed, so we try to collect ducks to match demand at each market. We are now selling ducks at Tk 800 to 1,200 a pair."

Buyers come for many reasons: some for their own table, some for guests, some to keep on the rooftop for a few days before eating, and some for hotels. There are also many who buy ducks at the market to hawk from house to house. One such buyer went from cage to cage, checking each duck's weight and meat and haggling hard with the sellers.

He is Babu, who has been selling ducks door to door for 10 to 12 years and had come to the market to stock up. "Having done this work for a long time, many people in the area know me and buy ducks from me regularly," he said. "I buy ducks here and sell them door to door in various parts of Tongi and Uttara, adding some profit to the market price. There is usually a profit of Tk 100 to 200 on each duck."

Tongi's weekly market is not just a place to buy and sell. Mixed with the flapping of wings are the farmer's toil, the seller's hopes for a livelihood, the buyer's needs and a familiar slice of rural Bengal. Every Sunday that life comes alive again among the cages, ducks, birds and the noise of people.

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