Animal Based Smallholding Farms in Developing Countries with Special Reference to Bangladesh

Abstract

Small farm systems combining crop and animals are the important categories especially in Bangladesh. The value of crop-animal systems lies in their positive contribution to sustainability and economic growth. A central goal of the small farm is to generate a minimum target income and a sustainable system. These types of small scale farming are widely practiced in South East Asia and East Asia as for example China, Indonesia, Vietnam, where animal production is integrated with fish farming and vegetable production. Increasing population pressure in Bangladesh results in progressively smaller agricultural holdings and traditional grazing areas are taken over for crop production. The production systems in Bangladesh are characterized with small litter size or flocks, no or minimal inputs, low outputs and periodic destruction of animals by disease. Typically the litter size or flocks are small in number with each household containing 2-3 cattle and 7-10 poultry. Animals are owned by individual households and mostly maintained under a scavenging system with little or no inputs for housing, feeding or health care. Under the prevailing situation in Bangladesh like other developing countries, the introduction of more productive integrated intensive farming systems is imperative. Maximum sustainable productivity can only be achieved by integrating intensive livestock and poultry keeping with crop production and agroforestry. Farmers consciously diversify the use of their resources to produce mix activities, which are economically rewarding and highly stable. As such in small-scale farms in the tropical countries, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, chicken, ducks are commonly reared in combination with mixed crop