Aquaculture Sector in Bangladesh

 The aquaculture sector in Bangladesh began with small scale extensive culture systems such as rice-cum-fish, livestock-cum-fish and earthen ponds in the early 1970s. The rapid growth the sector has achieved during the last two decades has been a direct result of the sector diversifying its farming practices and adapting to the production of exportable species at increased levels of intensification.

The culture systems are diversified according to national geographical and climatic conditions, the northern region is dominated by freshwater fish ponds, rice-cum-fish and marine cage culture; the central regions concentrate on the intensive culture of giant tiger prawn and the marine cage culture of fin fish or lobster and the southern part of the country has the most diversified farming activities that include pond, fence and cage culture of catfish as well as several indigenous species, various intensification levels of giant tiger prawn culture and integrated culture such as rice-cum-fish, rice-cum-prawn and mangrove-cum-aquaculture.

The aquaculture sector began commercial production for export in the early 1980s with the farming of the giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon ) initially. A major motive towards expansion of aquaculture in Bangladesh was provided by the sharp increase experienced in the volume of aquaculture product being exported. A remarkable achievement of the aquaculture sector has been the increase in total production to 1 150 100 tonnes from a farmed area of 902 900 hectares and which has contributed over 60 percent of the US$ 2.397 billion in export turnover earned from the fisheries sector 2004.

The farming of giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon ) and catfish (cá tra - Pangasius hypophthalmus and cá basa - Pangasius bocourti ) are the most developed sectors reaching production levels of 290 000 tonnes and 315 000 tonnes respectively in 2004. Other species such as spiny lobster (Panulirus spp.), groupers (Epinephelus spp.), bivalves (Meretrix lyrata and Anadara granosa ), tilapia, Chinese carps, Indian carps, climbing perch (Anabas testudineus ) and Indonesian snakehead (Channa micropeltes ), are also produced to differing levels of intensification and extent.

The aquaculture sector in Bangladesh has great potential to continue its current growth; however, there are a number of challenges ahead for the sustainable growth of the sector. 

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Catfish and it's future in Bangladesh

Catfish, mostly farming in Bangladesh.

Most Mississippians can tell you in detail how often farm-raised catfish end up on their dinner tables or the value of catfish farming to their state’s economy. But you’ll likely draw a blank stare if you ask them what Bangladesh has to do with Mississippi catfish farming.

The real answer is that the tiny country on the Indian Subcontinent has plenty to do with it. In a logical world, Mississippi catfish growers say, whatever is going on in Bangladesh would have nothing to do with catfish farming in Mississippi. After all, the insect-fed African catfish Bangladesh’s peasant farmers grow in mud holes around their homesteads are hardly the same as the grain fed channel catfish grown in thousands of acres of man-made, highly regulated aqua ponds across the Delta.

Different they may be, but the U.S. government sees them as quite comparable when determining whether cheap imported catfish is undercutting struggling catfish farmers in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana.

Mid South catfish producers do not actually compete with Bangladesh’s catfish growers. They do, however, compete with Vietnam’s producers.

Vietnam being a communist, or “nonmarket,” country whose catfish industry is heavily subsidized by the central government, the U.S. government can’t put a monetary value on how subsidies from Hanoi influence the cost of a pound of Vietnamese catfish fillets sold in the United States. Consequently, a “surrogate” country is needed on which to base a fair market value. The fair market value is key because an exporter found to be pricing a product below that value could be deemed guilty of dumping and thus subject to extra import duties. Settling on a fair market value is where Bangladesh comes in, and the frustration of Mississippi’s producers begins.

Bangladesh catfish, the African variety known as Clarias gariepinus, sell for around 42 cents to 43 cents a pound, a price that does not reflect any subsidies from the Bangladesh government . Vietnamese catfish fillets, or pangasius, go for around $1.50 a pound in U.S. markets, while catfish made in America wholesale at around $3.90 to $4 a pound.

Accordingly, in deciding whether the Vietnamese are dumping their government-subsidized catfish, the U.S. Commerce Department looks at the price Bangladesh exporters are getting. Selling for $1.50 a pound isn’t dumping – not when Commerce designates 42 cents to 43 cents as a fair market rate based on the wholesale price for Bangladesh’s African catfish product.

Fisheries and climate change

Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems. Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species. This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture, on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries, and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon (biological pump). The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change, while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland (freshwater) fisheries and aquaculture.

Generally, a fishery or fish cultivation is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats, purpose of the activities or a combination of the foregoing features". The definition often includes a combination of fish and fishers in a region, the latter fishing for similar species with similar gear types.

 

A fishery may involve the capture of wild fish or raising fish through fish farming or aquaculture. Directly or indirectly, the livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends on fisheries and aquaculture. Overfishing, including the taking of fish beyond sustainable levels, is reducing fish stocks and employment in many world regions.

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. water populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish. Broadly speaking, finfish and shellfish fisheries can be conceptualized as akin to hunting and gathering while aquaculture is akin to agriculture. Mariculture refers to aquaculture practiced in marine environments and in underwater habitats.

According to the FAO, aquaculture "is understood to mean the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated." The reported output from global aquaculture operations would supply one half of the fish and shellfish that is directly consumed by humans; however, there are issues about the reliability of the reported figures. Further, in current aquaculture practice, products from several pounds of wild fish are used to produce one pound of a piscivorous fish like salmon.

Particular kinds of aquaculture include fish farming, shrimp farming, oyster farming, algaculture (such as seaweed farming), and the cultivation of ornamental fish. Particular methods include aquaponics and Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, both of which integrate fish farming and plant farming.

Silver Carp in Bangladesh

Fisheries policy in Bangladesh is still trying to get to grips with the major (universal) dilemmas of maximizing benefits from natural resources while, at the same time, ensuring an acceptable degree of equity in distribution of benefits and protecting the ecosystems that support the resources. During the twentieth century Bangladesh adopted one-sided production-oriented policies in the agricultural sector to feed the rapidly growing population. This strategy included increasing fish production, which was in decline mainly as a result of environmental degradation brought about by the expansion of agriculture. The solution was aquaculture development and later the promotion of culture-based fisheries and large scale stocking in the floodplains and beels (lakes) that previously sustained the capture fisheries. Although fish production per se in many cases may have increased as a result of this type of intervention, benefits are not socially and environmentally sustainable. 

 

Traditional leasing of water bodies is effective but not equitable because the powerful leaseholders control the access; and because the leasing arrangements are of short duration the leaseholders will try to maximize benefits, often at the expense of environment and biodiversity. These strategies have consequently caused serious negative environmental impacts and have further reinforced inequalities between local elites and poorer fishers. Although several attempts have been made to transfer fishing rights to poor fishers through community-based management arrangements,influential people tend to dominate these attempts when there are financial attractions such as subsidies for stocking and the opportunity for easily controlled profits. While stocking of fingerlings, gear bans and seasonal bans on all or some fishing gears were successful technically to conserve and enhance resources it led to exclusion and suffering of poor fishers. Culture-based fisheries have relatively high production, but need strictly enforced closed seasons to allow fish to grow, an activity which excludes poor subsistence fishers.

 

However, in some places people who participated with the expectations of considerable personal gains ceded when more resilient lower-cost practices such as sanctuaries were adopted. Local equity issues are partly mitigated when poor people are allowed to catch small (non-stocked species) for food. In the floodplains, public stocking has not been sustained as access to these larger open systems is very difficult to control and participants are unable to capture enough benefits or raise funds from the wider community, while landowners tend to take advantage of the situation and catch more of the stocked fish. In smaller, more closed waterbodies, groups of fishers are able to control access and can profit, but the risks and need for capital are high.

This is because commercial aquaculture has emphasized the production of more profitable large fish species such as silver carp but overlooked the nutritional contribution that small fish can make, says Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, Senior Nutrition Adviser to CGIAR’s WorldFish Center. Dr. Thilsted, along with Dr. Patrick Dugan (Deputy Director General of WorldFish), came to IFAD headquarters in Rome on Friday, July 12^th to discuss the important role which small fish can and must play in aquaculture in the developing world. During their well-attended morning presentation, they also shared some of the latest findings and successes from a relevant IFAD-supported project in Bangladesh.

MY POND

3.1 acrs land for pond

North West corner of my pond

A big Boal Fish

North East corner of the pond

FISHING FROM THE POND

My youngest brother Moshiur and nephew Shaon and others watching how to catches fish.

Moshiur and Nazrul showing 3 months ages fish

My maternal uncle Nosir extracting fishes from net

Collected fishes

Nazrul and neibour

Katla fish age 3 months.

Collecting fishes

Collection of fishes

Sayeed with a fish

Collected fishes

Fish waiting for marketing

Aslam, Nazrul and Sayeed

My brother Aslam, Nazrul and my nephew Sayeed