Social Enterprises: Livestock and Fisheries

Dairy

BRAC Dairy was established in 1998 to provide fair milk prices to members of BRAC’s Village Organisations, who invested micro loans for purchasing cows. We collect milk from 92 collection and chilling stations in 25 districts, including 10 located in ultra-poor areas.

We have designed a particular model for livestock development for the rural poor that includes:

• technical training
• vaccinations
• fodder cultivation
• credit facilities

As a result of these activities, milk production increased substantially in the BRAC operational areas. BRAC Dairy is set up to create a linkage to the market, and protect farmers from price volatility resulting from over-supply.

Artificial Insemination of Livestock

The Artificial Insemination Programme was set up to create synergies with the BRAC Dairy enterprise as livestock is considered an important tool in poverty alleviation.

The BRAC Bull and Buck Station centre in Mymensingh is producing frozen semen since 2000. The programme aims to improve the breed of livestock for increased milk production and also to increase the cattle population in Bangladesh. The semen is delivered to poor rural livestock rearers, many of whom are BRAC microfinance borrowers, by BRAC trained and managed Artificial Insemination workers.

Poultry

BRAC Poultry is a pioneering venture in the field. Set up in 1996, it has contributed to the overall growth of the poultry industry in Bangladesh, and has created income-generating activities for millions of rural poor.

Major activities include:

• Production of day-old chicks
• Owned and operated poultry diagnostic lab
• Poultry rearing farmers

BRAC Poultry Broiler Processing plant is the sole automated plant in Bangladesh, and the largest.  It is set up to meet the growing demand for dressed chicken in large metropolitan areas such as Dhaka. The plant purchases chickens from our poultry rearing farms and some contract farms.

BRAC Feed Mills were established in 1999 with the objective to produce quality feed for poultry. Recently, we have diversified our products to include cattle and fish feed.

Fisheries

BRAC Fisheries, initiated in 1998, supplies fish spawn, prawn larvae, fish fry and fingerlings (juvenile fish) in response to the demand from commercial fishermen as wild stocks continue to decline.  This is an environmentally critrical intervention as overfishing (especially with fine prawn larvae nets) depletes wild fish and prawn stocks quickly, endangers local river and ocean dolpins and disturbs the natural ecosystems of Bangladesh.

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