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Research to boost fisheries
Shykh Seraj
Since the independence of Bangladesh, we have adopted silver carp, mirror carp, grass carp and big head carp fish with our climate and environment and later spread those across the country. However, in course of time, the taste declined. Then came katla, rui and mrigel fish varieties that saw successful breeding and rapid spread at farm level. Then arrived the catfish, first of the variety of it was African Magur. This variety helped the fish farmers but also it was in many aspects harmful for the fisheries sector. Although, for protein scarcity, many fish farmers were interested to go for it. Afterwards, pungas (farm cultivation starting in 1994) came and it's still very popular, in terms of price and flesh. In massive scale, later came Tilapia and so many others. Now, Bangladesh stands fourth in freshwater fish production in the world. Although Comilla was the leading fish producing region of our country, later fish farming spread in Mymensingh, Jessore and now it has gone across the country.
Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) and the Department of Fisheries have a great deal of contribution behind this, undoubtedly.
Dear readers, as you know Mymensingh is regarded as the forerunner of 'silver revolution' in our country. I have been to Mymensingh many times during the past four decades to boost up the promises in the fisheries sector. I frequently travelled to Bangladesh Agricultural University, especially its Fisheries Faculty and also FRI. In the early 80s, fish farming had spread so extensively that even vast areas of paddy lands turned into fish cultivation ponds. You would also be able to recall my TV campaign on fish farming in ponds adjacent to households, titled Hakim Ali's Fish Farm. And, I must not forget the great contributions of some legends who brought dramatic change in the fisheries sector - from FRI, Dr MA Majid, Dr MG Hossain, Dr MV Gupta, Dr VRP Sinha, Dr HM Kohinoor, Dr Md Akhteruzzaman, and last but not the least, Dr Yahya Mahmud who was then the scientific officer and now the DG of the
same institute. For the fish farming extension, Prof Dr Muhammad Anwarul Islam and Prof Dr Fazlul Alam Molla from Bangladesh Agricultural University had a big role too. Many other researchers and research organisations had great contribution behind the development of fisheries sector. The extension was huge. On both sides of the highway from Trishal, there were plenty of fish farms.
Despite our great success in fish production in the global perspective, how well we can sustain this performance remains a vital question.
While government research brought success for fish farmers, they also became innovative to go
onward with new creative approaches. Fish farmers also did breeding of many fish varieties and started farming in their own ponds.
As time flew by, hatchery owners became so much self-reliant that they became reluctant to take the help of government research outcomes and kept on experimenting a lot by themselves.
However, dear readers, you may also recollect a disaster that was seen couple of years back, the invasion of omnivorous fish, piranha - a consequence of such experiments carried out without caution.
This write-up also comes from a shift in gears of fish farming. Just a few days back, farmers were making good profits from Vietnamese koi fish. Before that Thai koi (farming introduced in 2003) and some other varieties were making profit. But now there is an overall price collapse in the market and farmers are losing
interest to rear these fishes. They are now more keen to cultivate pabda and gulsha. Although gulsha's breeding was done by FRI, it didn't see much progress in the past due to other popular fish varieties.
"Although some farmers are farming Vietnamese koi, they're not getting the minimum reasonable price for it.
"In that case, tilapia price should have gone up, but that didn't happen as the overall price for the fish has gone down, says Nurul Haque, an experienced fish farmer from Mymensingh.
"People are now more keen to buy pabda and gulsha,' he added.
A fish farmer, who used to get 15 tonnes of Vietnamese koi from one acre of land, now gets three tonnes of Pabda. Pabda farming started back in 2001. Shing fish also had a major stake in the market for couple of years. But due to a severe disease outbreak, farming of Shing declined massively.
Still tilapia and pungas are there and have demand in the market. But, for how long one variety will continue taking over the other? And, why can't these popular varieties sustain - that is a big question.
"However, tilapia's performance also declined this year," informs Nurul Haque.
"So, what's the solution at close to revive the fisheries sector?" I asked Nurul Haque, a nationally awarded progressive fish farmer of our country.
"The export market needs to be
opened," Nurul replied.
"There are issues with compliance, " I reminded him.
"We have all preparations for it and ready to fulfil all conditions," said a confident Nurul Haque.
He also suggested that farmers should get quality and subsidised feed. Through the restless campaign in Farmers' Voices in Budget, a yearly farmers' dialogue-based programme of Hridoye Mati O Manush, I raised the issue of reducing land development tax and the government has finally did it. But, fish farmers need the electricity bills to be reduced too.
In Germany, I have seen the researchers recommend to the farmers only those crops/fruits that will give them better produce. And they do it with an in-depth knowledge on climate variability.
Dear readers, the breeding at the hatchery level through private initiatives succeeded many a times but most of those failed after some short-term quick profit. I strongly believe that a coordinated research by the government authorities will help sustainable development in the fish production. Last but not the least, I hope the government research will be strengthened even more so that the fish farmers across the country get the real benefit out of it and take fisheries sector even further. Furthermore, research through public-private partnership can augment the country's fisheries sector.