Abstract

The study was undertaken to examine the socioeconomic profile of buffalo farmers and to assess the marketing and consumers preference on buffen (buffalo meat) in the selected areas. Twelve districts namely: Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Moulovibazar, Bhola, Bagerhat, Feni, Potuakhali, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Chittagong, Tangail and Sirajgong were selected purposively. A total of 1400 buffalo farmers were interviewed following simple random sampling technique. Data were collected during June 2011 to April 2016 and analyzed data using SPSS software. Study revealed that the highest per cent of farmers were in age group 31-45 years indicating that farmers were mature enough to give more labour to their farming activities. On average, 88 per cent buffalo farmers were engaged purely in agriculture followed by business and service as primary occupation. The highest numbers of farmers were illiterate followed by primary education, SSC, HSC and Degree. About 49 per cent buffalo farmers had above 15 years of farming experience of rearing buffalo. Average farm size was estimated 0.95 hectare indicating small and medium category farm and average family size was calculated 6 persons per family which is higher than national average 4.9. Dependency ratio was also estimated to 0.94. The study showed that buffen contributes 7.16 per cent of total red meat production and 6.19 per cent of total meat production in Bangladesh and about 50 percent farmers reported that they did fattening before selling of buffalo. About 48 per cent consumers reported that they prefer buffen most among different kinds of meats. In view point of butcher, about 46 percent consumer preferred buffen than beef.

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