Govt takes up project to develop shrimp farming infrastructure
The Department of Fisheries has taken a Tk 30 crore scheme to develop shrimp farming infrastructure in the country's southern region for increasing shrimp production, its Director General Syed Arif Azad said yesterday.
The fund will be released soon, he said at a programme at the headquarters of the fisheries department. The department, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation organised the programme under a project titled Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF).
The money will mainly be used for re-excavation of silted-up canals to increase availability of saline water in shrimp enclosures, locally known as ghers, in Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat and Cox's Bazar districts, the main region for farming of export-oriented shrimps and prawns.
Azad said export earnings will not increase without maximising production, and an increase in depth of shrimp enclosures will facilitate that.
Md Sainar Alam, assistant director of the fisheries department, said intervention under the STDF project has contributed to increased shrimp and prawn production.
Some 40 clusters, involving 1,000 farmers, were selected under the project and a baseline survey was carried out.
The average production in intervention areas rose 48 percent to 552 kilogram each hectare of land, he said.
The average depth of shrimp ghers also increased in the same period.
An e-traceability system is also in process of development for cluster farmers.
Ensuring traceability would be important for export in future, said Craig A Meisner, country director (South Asia) of WorldFish, an international research organisation that harnesses fisheries and aquaculture to reduce hunger and poverty.
SM Amzad Hossain, president of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association, suggested developing an epicentre to render support to the shrimp farmers.
The epicentre may be built in partnership with different stakeholders, he said.
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