Fish farming on rise in Bangladesh

Fish production in the country has increased by more than 50 per cent in the last 11 years. Citing latest report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Prime Minister said, Bangladesh has risen to the second position in the world in terms of the growth rate of freshwater fish production.

The Fisheries and Livestock Ministry has taken different measures to produce six lakh metric tonnes of fish in the current fiscal year of 2020-21.The target was mentioned at the 12th meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry on Sunday. The meeting was held with the chairman of the parliamentary body. Dhirendra Debnath Shambhu at the Sangsad Bhaban.

The parliamentary panel was informed that the ministry took the decision to impose a 22-day ban on catching, selling, hoarding and transporting of Hilsa from October 14 to November 04 next with a view to boost its production by ensuring safe breeding through protection of mother hilsa.

During the ban, the government has taken steps to distribute 20kg rice per day to each of the 5.70 lakh families of the affected fishermen in the country.
The parliamentary committee scrutinized the Fish and Fish Products (Inspection and Quality Control) Bill, 2020 and recommended placing  its report over the bill in the House.Committee members Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim, BM Kabirul Haque, Choto Monir, Shamima Akter Khanam and Kaniz Fatema Ahmed attended the meeting, said a handout.

Fish production in the country increased in the past two decades driven mainly by aquaculture, which primarily relies on farming in ponds. Commercial pond fisheries became a major source of fish production since the early 1990s, benefiting from highly productive and profitable aquaculture fish varieties. Market for farmed fish has also reportedly grown by a massive 25 times over the last three decades.

A study report of the Washington-based think tank International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) made an interesting observation while reviewing the Bangladesh fish farming sector: More than two million people out of the approximately eight million who moved out of the poverty trap during the last decade were directly facilitated by aquaculture. In other words, it is the role of fisheries in food security that makes this sector so uniquely distinctive.

Contrary to the assumptions that nutrient-rich foods will remain out of reach for the poor, the success of fish aquaculture in Bangladesh shows how nutrient-rich food can become more widely available for all, the report said. Citing the use of modern fish varieties, improved farming practices, and expansion of road network to rural areas and increased telecommunication access, IFPRI says aquaculture's transformation has been driven by improved technology, reduced transaction costs and value-chain innovation.

The government did play an important role in the initial years, but lately it is primarily the private initiatives that have helped the sector thrive. While there is the need for continued government support to sustain the growth of the sector, non-government organisations (NGOs) should also be more forthcoming to make it more vibrant.

Fish farming in Bangladesh is no longer a subsistence occupation. What is more, it has attracted a range of backward and forward linkage business ventures -- that too in rural areas all over the country. There has been a proliferation of feed mills and hatcheries, drawing small- and medium-scale investments.

Observers feel that given the present scale of fish farming and prospects of further growth, the country has excellent potential for export also. Sweetwater fish farmed in ponds can be expected to capture a sizeable share of the global market-an example that has been so successfully set by Vietnam. The government should facilitate the process. There is also the need for increased credit financing. The existing farm loan policy of the government should be suitably recast to target fish farming as a highly deserving sector.