That Bangladesh Bank has asked commercial banks to provide fresh loans on an emergency basis to help rehabilitate the poultry farms is a welcome move. Poultry industry has to be protected at all costs as, apart from the economic recovery, it’’ll also help solve the nutritional problem as poultry birds and eggs meet much of our nutrition requirements. The Bangladesh Bank issued a circular asking the banks to strengthen loans to poultry farmers who have been affected directly or indirectly by the bird flu. The central bank advised the banks to relax the condition of down payment for rescheduling the default loans in the sector on the basis of bank-client relationship and disburse fresh loan as early as possible. It has advised to suspend recovering previous loans. It is one year for the principal amount and six months for interest amount. The central bank has also advised the commercial banks to monitor the loan disbursement activities so that the poultry farmers are not harassed to get the loans. The Monitoring Cell in the commercial banks earlier formed to oversee the agriculture credit activities would also monitor the loan activities in the poultry sector. So far so good. What is imperative at this very momenbt is launching of massive mass awareness programme across the country to allay unnecessary fears about bird flu. That Bangladesh has a built-in disaster management capability is evident from the efficient way the caretaker government is handling the outbreak of bird flu in the country. Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed merits our kudos as he had summoned an emergency meeting of the Advisory Council to announce the arrival of the scourge in Bangladesh. Some quarters did criticise such a public announcement but then without official recognition of the new problem for Bangladesh, bird flu could have taken a huge toll. As a result, all in the poultry industry have swung into action to cull afflicted chicken immediately and the caretaker government has commendably created huge public awareness about it.  As it appears, Bangladesh is now at high risk of bird flu epidemic. It still continues to be a low prevalence area, but some countries like India and Thailand, where the bird flu has already entered, surround Bangladesh. Bird flu may turn out to be pandemic at the situation. So, there is a serious need to create awareness among us against such epidemic issues.

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