involved. There were four players worked together for their own benefit. The
study revealed that a chaff cutter provided the services to small scale
community dairy owners by chaffing their cattle feed i.e. straw, and earning
Tk. 350.00-400.00 per day. Dairy inputs seller provided support to the dairy
farmer through supplying vaccines, medicines and concentrated feeds in
cash and/or credit systems. One milk collector worked in one community
and he/she usually collected milk from the farmers and supplied to milk
chilling centre of BARC. The community farmers provided benefit to milk
collectors Tk. 1.00 /kg milk for his or her transportation and income. This
type of model may be replicated in other areas of Bangladesh as a livelihood
and food security for the rural farmers.
2. Innovation in testing: Small-scale silage-making technology for
the ultra-poor of floodplains
Mahfuzur Rahman Khan, Sazzad Hossain Miah and Md. Ashraf Uddin,
Practical Action Bangladesh
The acute shortage of feeds and fodder is one of the major reasons for low
productivity in livestock. Despite owning a couple of cattle, the ultra-poor of
Bangladesh can neither spare land for animal feed (forage) production nor
can afford to buy concentrate feed for their animals. Daily harvesting of
green forage (cut-and-carry system) is always challenging for the extreme
poor with insufficient family labour. In the flood-prone areas of the country,
the most severe feed shortage occurs in July-October, when most of the low-
lying pasture land gets flooded. High-yielding fodder production, and its
processing and preservation (silage-making) can minimize feed shortage in
this lean period. Given the long rainy season and flood situation in
Bangladesh, regular silage-making in underground pit (concrete silo) cannot
be widely practiced in low-lying flood-prone areas. The cost of establishing a
concrete silo is also very high for ultra-poor farmers. Little attention has,
however, been paid to conserve forages as silage using low-cost methods.
Under a vulnerability reduction project of Practical Action Bangladesh, a
new, low-cost fodder preservation (silage-making) technology has been
developed and tested in 2012 in the flood-prone areas of Sirajganj. This
portable, bamboo-mat silo (volume 101 cubic feet) can preserve fodder (0.5
ton grass) to feed 1 or 2 cattle in the rainy months. This innovation has
considered the vulnerability of the ultra-poor living in flood-prone areas,
their housing condition, their livestock-farming capacity and their ability to
invest. This paper shares the initial experience of this innovative model.
Poverty and Development: Realities of Grassroots 27