Contract farming reduces costs and lowers the risk of antibiotic resistance

Broiler chicken farms have grown in response to increasing national demand for chicken. Stakeholders now think it is time to take the industry to the next level.

Many small farmers give antibiotics to healthy chickens to prevent disease. Experts cite World Health Organisation (WHO) documents, which recommend that antibiotics should be used on livestock farms only to treat disease, because over-use of antibiotics is making germs resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotic resistant bacteria often cause fatal infections in humans.

Experts say farms should prevent diseases by using "bio-security" measures, such as building a fence around a chicken house, and by washing hands before entering the chicken house. If these measures are followed, antibiotics are usually not needed.

When small broiler farmers become contract growers of a poultry company, they are guided by company officers, and spend only Tk1.5-Tk3 on medicines per broiler chicken. On the other hand, independent broiler farmers use too many medicines, including antibiotics, and spend Tk12-Tk17 per broiler chicken on medicines.

Imran Bhuiyan, a young poultry farmer from Choitonnyo village in Shibpur, Narsingdi, has been in the business for almost five years. He is not aware that it is necessary to stop using antibiotics several days before selling the broilers.

He says he uses medicines to prevent disease, and continues to use them until the broilers are sold, as recommended by his dealer. Dealers sell feed, chicks and medicines to farmers. They have an incentive to sell unnecessary medicines because they make profit by selling medicines.

On the advice of a dealer, Imran spends between Tk12,000 and Tk19,000 on medicines for each batch of 1,000 broiler chicken.

Mohammad Sharif (30) of Tongirtek, Shibpur, was once a shop owner. He has become a poultry farmer and depends on credit and technical support from a local dealer. "I have spent Tk11,000 for medicine in the past 22 days and my estimate is that the expense would stand at Tk15,000 if I sell the birds in six days," he stated on 1 March 2024. He is afraid that the chickens will die, and this compels him to use medicines incessantly.

Ms Bilkis, wife of returned expatriate Raju Miah (50) of Tongirtek village, Shibpur, said she uses medicines from the beginning to the end of the production cycle to ensure the survival of chickens. "We sometimes make profit but lost money many times since 2009. It's essential to protect the chickens by any means," she argued when asked why they used medicines so frequently.

On the other hand, Rushia Akter (36), a housewife of Choitonnyo, Shibpur, who has set up a 1,000-capacity farm to repay her expatriate husband's loan, is complying with the rules under a contract farming deal with a company. "I do not lose money as I maintain bio-security and need not spend money on medicine other than what the company supplies. In case of diseases like cold, I use herbal treatments, using ginger and kalijira, not antibiotics," she said.

Kausar Mahmud (38), who helps his wife Musrat Jahan to run a two-shed farm with capacity to rear over 4,000 birds, became a contract farmer a year ago. He used to do business with credit from a dealer for four years before that. "We don't have any risk of losing money now as the company covers it. Also, we get an incentive for higher productivity," he said.

Records kept at each farm show that contract growers spend only Tk1,500-Tk3,000 on average for a batch of 1,000 broilers, thanks to good advice from company officers.

"We have noticed that contract growers in general follow the protocols for farming in a sustainable manner. And female farmers comply more with what they are asked to follow," said Shahadat Hossain, a poultry business consultant working in Narsingdi.

He observed that it takes time to change people's habit and that it is important to bring positive changes in the industry.

Kazi Farms, a company which works with small farmers under written contracts, has published guidelines to make the farmers understand that excessive use of antibiotics on farms is harmful for human health. The guidelines also explain how farmers can prevent diseases through bio-security measures and can produce broilers without using antibiotics.

In November 2017, the WHO published "Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance."

The WHO recommended that farmers should stop using antibiotics to prevent disease in healthy animals. It mentioned that in some countries, around 80% of total consumption of "medically important antibiotics" takes place on animal farms.

Medically important antibiotics are antibiotics which are important in human medicine. If bacteria become resistant to these antibiotics, hospitals will lose the ability to treat many infections in humans.

Dwelling on the issue of farming with less antibiotics, Professor Mahmudul Sikder of Bangladesh Agriculture University mentioned that companies organising contract farming have experts to help the farmers to maintain bio-security and get higher productivity while using less medicine.

"Under this arrangement, farmers are provided with training and knowledge to use medicine judiciously and ensure proper waste management and thus produce safer food which is a national priority," he said.