প্রকাশ: 13/04/2022
Many of the people are becoming self-reliant through fish
farming commercially as Rajshahi is the suitable place for farming since
immemorial time.
District Fisheries Officer Alok Kumar Shaha said Rajshahi
along with its surrounding districts is the pioneer in the field of supplying
live fish to different parts in the country including the capital Dhaka.
There are scores of ponds on 13,050 hectares of land
producing 84,000 tons of fish every year ensuring food security in terms of
animal protein besides generating employment for around 288,000 people.
Sadiqul Islam, 54, a commercial fish farmer in Paba upazila,
had started fish farming in a small pond in 2007. Now, he has ponds in over 180
bighas of land.
"Fish farming is a profitable business and the live
fish trading is more profitable and lucrative." Ershad Ali, 47, another
fish farmer of Shilmaria village under Puthiya Upazila, said many more people
are entering into the fish farming business as it's very profitable.
"Many of the landowners are now being seen digging new
ponds to lease out to fish farmers." Ershad told BSS that Tk 20,000 to Tk
30,000 is the present lease value for a pond on one bigha. "Anyone can
farm fish with around Tk 1.5 lakh to Tk 2 lakh easily if one cultivates fish
using modern methods."
Amzad Hossain, a fish farmer of Keshorehat village in
Mohanpur upazila, alone produced 30.25 tons of fish worth around Tk44.25 lakh
making a net profit of Taka 15 lakh in 2019. Through ensuring quality, he
collects eggs from government hatchery and rivers and breeds fish from the eggs
by himself.
At the initial stage, he got training from the Upazila
Fisheries Office in fish farming. He said several hundreds of new large ponds
have been dug for commercial fish cultivation. Tofazuddin Ahmed, divisional
deputy director of the Department of Fisheries, said the region has attained
significant success in fish spawn and fish fingerling production which are also
surplus than the existing demand.
He said the region has also attained the success of 71,443
tons of surplus fish production in comparison to the existing demands. The
farmers harvested 476,000 tons of fish from 403,000 hectares of different
categories of water-bodies in the last fiscal against the demand of 404,000
tons for around 19,200,000 people in the division this year. Ahmed attributed
the success to the adoption of multidimensional development and extension
programs including the promotion of modern technologies.
Fish farming is making many people financially solvent along
with boosting their social dignity and contributing to meeting the demand for
the animal protein of the region besides different other parts of the
country.
In order to boost fish production in the country's internal
water-bodies, a stock of around 104,000 lakh tons of fish fingerlings has been
arranged in different water-bodies at a cost of around Taka 15.62 crore
benefiting 684,000 lakh fish farmers.
Besides, beel nursery on 1,370.06 hectares of water-bodies
has been installed at a cost of around Tk 2.8 crore benefitting 58,984
fish-growers contributing a lot to boosting carp fish in internal water bodies.
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