Farmers vow not to set bird traps anymore

Speakers at a meeting in Ishwardi upazila headquarters under the district on Sunday urged the farmers to protect natural birds for the sake of biodiversity.
The district livestock office organised the meeting at Bangladesh Farmers Development and Cooperative Society office in Ishwardi to create awareness among farmers about the bad effect of using current nets in their fields.
A large number of natural birds get trapped and killed as framers set nets to protect their crops, vegetables and fruits and a good number of birds caught in this way, especially migratory ones, are sold in the market.
The Daily Star ran a report titled 'A cruelty goes on openly' on January 12 in this regard.
“Birds are an important element of nature. Indiscriminate trapping of natural birds in the name of crop protection is harmful for the environment as it badly affects biodiversity,” District Livestock Officer Enamul Haque said in his address as the chief guest at Sunday's meeting.
“We the farmers started using nets to protect our crops, fruits and vegetables from birds. As we now realise that indiscriminate use of nets causes serious harm to natural birds we have decided not to do it,” Siddikur Rahman Moyez, president of Bangladesh Farmers Development and Cooperative Society, said at the meeting.
"Many farmers have already left use of current nets in their crop fields and others will follow it soon as we are creating awareness among the farmers," said Moyez, who also chaired the meeting.
Md Mohir Uddin, Ishwardi upazila livestock officer, veterinary surgeon Nasrin Parvin, national award winner farmers Jahidul Islam, Amirul Islam, Abdul Jalil and Abdul Bari spoke on the occasion, among others.