The collaboration will encourage the capacity building of char-based cattle feed retailers ensuring quality ready feed and relevant services to char farmers. The Managing Director of Jahurul Islam Companies, A.L.Fazle Rahim Khan, and The Team Leader of M4C Project, Mr. Abdul Awal signed the agreement and discussed future transversal scopes of partnership and collaboration.
From the genesis, Making Markets Work for the Jamuna, Padma and Teesta Chars1 (M4C) is working to connect national and local service providers with institutional actors to create a beneficiary-level impact in the char context aiming to reduce the perennial economic struggle of the char dwellers. Cattle rearing for meat (bull fattening), an important income-generating activity in the char could create employment and improve nutrition. However, constrained by remoteness and low incomes, they have difficulty accessing quality feed, services, and markets. On the other hand, maize has appeared as a vital crop in the char dwellers’ crop portfolio. The volume of quality maize produced there has immense potential to reduce the import dependency of livestock feed producers in Bangladesh.
Aftab Feed Products Limited (AFPL) is one of the largest and most significant revenue earner companies of animal feed producers with a solid distribution network across Bangladesh. With a mission to provide export quality feed in the Bangladeshi market, AFPL is introducing products that are reliable and economical without compromising the quality of feed products. M4C believes the joint effort with Aftab Feed will improve the performance of this sector in the chars.
M4C is a project mandated by the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives implemented by Swisscontact and Rural Development Academy, Bagura.