RAJSHAHI: There is a bright prospect of promoting cage fish farming method in existing rivers of Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj districts, reports BSS. Cage culture has bright prospects of yielding around 10,000 tonnes of additional fishes valued at around Tk 150 crore only in the two districts annually.
Prospect of commercial fish farming in river and different other open water bodies is bright that can supplement the government effort to boost fish production in the region to meet up its nutritional deficiency, said Dr Amimul Ehsan, senior fisheries officer of Mohanpur upazila. “We have found the potentiality after assessing outcomes of a pilot project of cage fish culture along the Mohananda River, adjacent to the Chapainawabganj district town,” Dr Ehsan added. In the preliminary stage, an experimental unit of 10 cages was commissioned. Only mono-sex tilapia was promoted for rearing as its survival capacity is comparatively higher amid disfavourable condition than any other species.
Farmers are happy with the output of tilapia culture, which requires small time and effort to get results and have a good demand in the market. The fish species that supplies essential nutrients—particularly vitamin A, calcium, iron and zinc—to the rural poor suffering from under-nutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger). As an effort to conduct a feasibility study of commercial fish farming in floating cages in the Mohananda River, the project has been initiated ever first in the northwest Bangladesh. By which, a demonstrative system of cage fish culture in the flowing river were set up.
Thereby, unemployed youths, fishermen and local people were encouraged towards such type of income-generating activities. Besides, students and researchers from the concerned departments, colleges and universities are availing the scopes of gathering knowledge being learnt from the venture. As a whole, the intervention is being adjudged as a collective effort of boosting fish production. In addition to the commercial forecast, the project has an amusement outlook. Dr Ehsan said around 10 tonnes of fish valued at around Taka 15 lakh can be harvested from per unit annually if water level remains optimum alongside free from infection of any disease. A farmer can easily make neat profit worth Taka 35,000 with primary investment of Taka four lakh in every month, he added.