Commercial farming of Patari fish
Five farmers cultivate the local variety on 17-bigha farm, supply fry to others
Commercial cultivation of local variety delicious fish patari sees success in Danpota area of Fakirhat upazila adjacent to the Passur river in the district, thanks to the initiative of five farmers.
Two years ago, they started the cultivation under a cooperative for cultivation of the delicious fish, also called vetki, on 17 bighas of land adjacent to the river.
“We have set traps with bamboo and cloths in the fish enclosure where different kinds of fishes like patari including its larvae and fry enter during the full moon and the new moon, especially in the Bangla months of Baishakh and Jaistha,” said Manirul Islam, technician of Patari cultivation of the farm.
“Using nets, we sort the patari larvae and fry into small, medium and big ones. Patrai is a voracious eater, which even eats its small larvae and fry. And so, we separate small ones and transfer it to another pond for growing,” he said.
“Patari mainly eats live fishes like puti, tilapia and different kinds of shrimp. We supply the feed from natural sources,” he added.
“After one year of starting the cultivation, the patari grew over one kg each and we sold it for Tk 500 Tk 600 per kg. As we get most of the feed and larvae from the natural sources, we get much profit from this cultivation. We have sold one tonne of patari this year,” said Asaduzzaman, one of the five farmers.
“Now fish farmers come to us to take fry for cultivating the tasty fish. If we get loans with low interest we could take measures like making our enclosure embankment high to save the fishes during floods. We could also give the fishes more feed,” he added.
Amio Chakraborty, executive director of Betaga Juba Foundation that formed the cooperative to cultivate the fish, said they planned to cultivate patari in the enclosure adjacent to the Passur river where its larvae is available.
“We have not got any help from the district fisheries office, although we have informed them about our cultivation,” he said.
Contacted, the district's Fisheries Officer Md Zia Haider Chowdhury said, “I have heard about the cultivation. We will run a new project soon for the improvement of our coastal fishes.”