The venture of goat fattening has become popular as many marginalised families have elevated their fortunes in the region, including its vast Barind tract, side by side with beef and lamb fattening.
Besides commercial farming, many of the grassroots villagers are rearing different species of goat, including Black Bengal, in their native way.

According to the official sources of the Department of Livestock Services, around 5.30 lakh goats have been fattened and reared in farms and houses ahead of Eid-ul-Azha in the district.
Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), a state-owned anti-poverty organisation, has been extending financial and technical support to the farmers in association with various non-government development organisations, including Sataful Bangladesh (SB).

Sohel Rana and his wife Rima Khatun, both graduates of Daulatpur village under Bagmara upazila, have started goat-rearing ventures at their house after failing to get a government job around five years ago.
Since then, they have been rearing goats and selling them in sacrificial animal markets before Eid.

Two years ago, they found a goat-fattening farm adjacent to their house.
Talking to BSS, Sohel Rana said they fattened around 30 goats after purchasing kids for Tk1.80 lakh in the current year. They sold eight of those for Tk1.70 lakh, and the rest are expected to be sold for around Tk4.25 lakh.
He said many rural families have been rearing and fattening goats commercially and earning huge profits every year. Some poor and marginalised people, including women, have achieved tremendous success in the sector.

For the last couple of years, many villagers have been seen fattening their goats using natural methods. They use only straw, molasses, oilcake, gramme, blackgramme, green grass, and wheat bran as feed instead of any steroid tablets or injections.
The Executive Director of Sataful Bangladesh Nazim Uddin Mollah said they are providing financial and technical assistance to the village-level entrepreneurs towards establishing goat farms, and many of the beneficiaries have become self-reliant.

District Livestock Officer Dr Zulfikar Muhammad Akhter Hossain said there is an immense prospect of rearing and fattening goats.
There are more than 100 goat-fattening farms in Rajshahi. In the current year, around 5.26 lakh goats were reared in the district, up by around one lakh from the previous year.
Dr Zulfikar Akhter said substantial and sustainable boosting of the rearing of goats, including black Bengal, has been playing a vital role towards meeting protein demands coupled with promoting income generation and improving the living and livelihood conditions of rural people.

Farming has also been playing vital roles in creating earning opportunities and reducing poverty, besides meeting the protein demand of rural people.
He said the climate of the region is favourable for rearing Black Bengal goats. The unemployment problem can be solved, and the poverty of rural people can be reduced easily by farming Black Bengal goats.
Black Bengal is one of the top five meat-producing breeds in the world. Its child production capacity is high, the meat is delicious, the skin is of international quality, its life expectancy in the region's climate is high, and it is a tool for poverty alleviation.

The existing seven public sector farms in different parts of the country, including one in Rajshahi, have been renovated with modern facilities on behalf of the project.
The farms have been modernised by setting up offices, accommodation, godowns, roads, electrification, drainage, dipping baths, composting, sheds, boundary walls, and deep tube- wells.
Dr Zulfikar Akhter said they are also setting up exhibition farms side by side by creating skilled manpower and public awareness of goat rearing, coupled with supplying good quality goats from seven government goat development farms to the farmers at the upazila level.
Prof Jalal Uddin Sarder of the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Rajshahi University said there are immense prospects for increasing the export of goat meat by adopting artificial insemination programmes and increasing input support for medium-scale farmers, which will ease unemployment, meet nutritional needs, achieve economic independence, and earn foreign currency.