Abstract
The present study attempts to examine the scenario of buffalo production in Bangladesh. The buffalo plays a very important role in the South Asian region which constitutes 77.5% of world buffalo population. This region has a great biodiversity in buffalo germplasm, including the world famous source promising buffaloes Murrah and Nili-Ravi - renowned for high milk production potential. It is estimated that about 96.05 % of Asia and 93.19 % of world buffalo milk are produced in South Asian countries. Besides, buffalo milk in South Asian countries is around 54.95 % of the total milk production. The India and Pakistan share 67.99% and 23.96%, of world buffalo milk production respectively. About 71.4% of world buffalo meat is produced in South Asian countries. Although buffalo is an integral part of livestock production system in South Asian countries, it has never been addressed in Bangladesh and always neglected despite their important role in the national economy. In Bangladesh, the total buffalo population are 1.464 million heads that are managed in household subsistence farming as well as extensive free range (Bathan) farming in saline coastal region that are used as a draught animal and partially for milk and meat production. The contribution of buffalo in total milk and meat production in Bangladesh is only 2.0% and 0.94%, respectively. This review has tried to unearth the present scenario of buffalo production in Bangladesh, describing the benefits and values of buffalo milk and meat, advantages of buffalo husbandry over cattle, constraints in buffalo production and recommendations for buffalo development in Bangladesh.SAARC J. Agri., 14(2): 63-77 (2016)
Highlights
Buffalo is a multipurpose domestic animal that helps the livelihood of people by providing high quality milk and meat, dung as fuel and organic fertilizer; mechanical or draft power and hides and skins as raw material for industry (Irshad et al, 2011)
This paper aims to discuss the present situation and future prospects of buffalo production in Bangladesh
Buffalo could be a major source of milk and meat to reduce the milk and meat demand gap in Bangladesh
Summary
Buffalo is a multipurpose domestic animal that helps the livelihood of people by providing high quality milk and meat, dung as fuel and organic fertilizer; mechanical or draft power and hides and skins as raw material for industry (Irshad et al, 2011). In Bangladesh, the total buffalo population is about 1.464 million (DLS, 2015) of which coastal regions possess about 40% (Faruque et al, 1990). In Bangladesh, recent year’s rapid growth of urbanization, poverty reduction, increase in middle class, and their increased income have changed their food preferences These recent developments have major impacts on demand for animal derived products such as milk, meat, butter, cheese, ice-cream, baby foods, locally made traditional sweets which are merely dependent on milk. Out of total milk production, about 90% share is from cattle, 8% from goat and the remaining 2% from buffalo (DLS, 2015). There are some cross breed with Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Surti and Jaffrabadi surrounding of Indian border (Faruque et al, 1990; Huque and Borghese, 2012)
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