Upazila level Consumer Committee Forum (UCCF) meeting
On August 27, 2018 a Monthly meeting of Upazila level Consumer Committee Forum (UCCF) was held in Nandalpur Union Parishad, Kumarkhali Kushtia where Mr. Nousher Ali Biswas, Chairman, Nandalpur Union Parishad was present as chair and Md. Arifuzzaman, Lecturer, Alauddin Ahmed Degree College, Kumarkhali was present as the special guest. The purpose of the meeting was to consult the achievement, challenges and recommendation of the consumer committee’swork among the members.There were 24 participants present (23=Male; 1=Female) in the meeting from local government representative, poultry farmer, Live Bird Market (LBM) Actors (Sellers), middle-men, local Department of Livestock Services (DLS), department of food, educational institution, civil society representative and BeezBistar Foundation (BBF) representatives.
As Upazila Consumers Committee Forum (UCCF) was formed to aware poultry value chain actors to ensure food safety from the farm to table and UCCF started their regular meeting with themselves from the starting period. All members were agreed that poultry input dealers are now more aware regarding the selection and storage of poultry feed and members regularly visit poultry farmers to motivate farm owner for the adoption of good hygienic practices though this is very challenging due to behavioral mind setup of small scale poultry farmers. Due to continuous motivation and monitoring of poultry farms by the UCCF, farmers are now practicing medicinal prescription under the supervision of upazila livestock office than previous. All live bird market of Kumarkhali Upazila are now more clean than earlier due to regular visit of LBM by the UCCF, reported by a live bird seller during the meeting.
UCCF members shared their view as they faced challenges for getting registration of poultry farmers who reared less than 1000 bird that should be included in DLS registration process as soon as possible. Members of UCCF were agreed on meeting that a common identity card is needed for them as they linked with regular monitoring process of all actors where someone asked them to put their own identity to strengthen their voluntary work.
The UCCF members were planning to conduct their upcoming activities are as follows: a public meeting at Kumarkhali rail gate, a human chain in Kumarkhali upazila complex, Listing of registered and unregistered poultry farm in Kumarkhali upazila along with continuous assistance for feed dealer and poultry farmer regarding their registration process.
As chair Mr. Nousher Ali Biswas, Chairman, Nandolapur Union Parishad, Kumarkhali, Kushtia, actively participated on meeting and he delivered his thanked to all participants as well as organizers and he expressed satisfaction to learn the progress of the activities conducted by “Consumer Committee Forum”. He assured all members that his team will assist the CCF regarding the solving of legal challenges and all members should bear their future activities for the sake of food safety governance in poultry sectors as his closing remarks.