🇧🇩 The cattle breeds of Bangladesh

Cattle play a small part in Bangladesh's farming, a world ruled by rice and jute. Bovines are raised for milk, leather and meat, and in earlier years they tilled the land, carried loads and supplied fuel from their dung. Dairying matters most in the villages, where cheesemaking, ghee and other milk foods are on the rise.

• Bangladeshi bovines are kept for milk, leather and meat.
• Animal husbandry adds about 2.9 percent of GDP and grows 5.5 percent a year.
• Cattle once tilled fields, hauled loads and supplied fuel from dung.
• Village dairies make ghee, labang and mattha, and cheese output is rising.
• Cheese imports far exceed exports, and Bangladesh is keen to close the gap.

Cattle in Bangladesh

Farming in Bangladesh is overwhelmingly a story of rice, with jute, wheat, potatoes, tea and newer crops such as coffee filling out the picture, and within it cattle play a small part. They belong to animal husbandry, the branch of rural life that also keeps goats, sheep, ducks, horses and bees, and which contributes a modest slice of national output yet grows steadily from year to year. Bovines are kept for their milk, leather and meat, and an older generation of farmers relied on them to till the land, carry loads and supply fuel from manure. Dairying is the strand most closely woven into village life, and its output has been climbing.

Milk, butter and beef

Milk leads the list. Village dairies turn it into ghee, a high-fat butter; labang, a fermented milk; and mattha, a kind of buttermilk. Cheesemaking is the newer venture, with local output rising to take the place of imported cheese, although imports still far outweigh exports and the country is keen to close that gap. Away from the pail, bovines also supply leather and meat.

Today

Animal husbandry, cattle included, stands at about 2.9 percent of GDP and grows about 5.5 percent a year: small beside the crop economy, but moving upward. Dairying is the liveliest part, with local cheese output rising to meet demand once filled from abroad, and ghee, labang and mattha gaining ground. The pandemic dealt the industry a heavy blow. Meanwhile the old working jobs of cattle, ploughing and carrying, have slipped into the past.