Govt farm succeeds in prawn larvae production at small cost
The government-run fish spawn farm in Bagerhat has achieved a laudable success, producing optimum amount of prawn larvae with limited manpower and a small investment.
Prawn is an important export item of the country and once a good number of private-owned hatcheries produced huge quantities of prawn in Bagerhat.
But the owners closed the prawn hatcheries in recent years due to serious production fall caused by different factors including virus attack.
Now only three private hatcheries are running to produce carp larvae in Bagerhat, said District Fishery officer (DFO) Dr Khalead Kanok.
In 1964, the then East Pakistan government set up a fish spawn farm on 8.4 acres of land in Gobardia area of Bagerhat town and it produced only white carp spawn till 2018.
In 2019, farm manager Nirmal Kumar Kundu took a different initiative and produced two lakh prawn larvae there. He gained the success although he has to work with a small manpower including one technician, one hatchery attendant, one field assistant, one office assistant and two night guards," said the DFO.
"Seeing the prawn hatcheries of Bagerhat close down one after another, we took the initiative to produce prawn larvae in our farm. Starting the work in 2019 with a government budget of only Tk 80 thousand, we were able to produce two lakh prawn against the target of one lakh the same year," said Nirmal Kumar Kundu, manager of the farm.
"This year we collected 105 female fish from the Baleshwar river in Pirojpur district. They produced more than six lakh larvae. Earlier we had expected that about two and a half lakh of it would grow into post-larvae. But it is likely to be a little over one lakh as the temperature is not that high.
"Our organization is running with only seven people including me. It is possible to increase the production if there is adequate manpower and other facilities," said the manager.
Bagerhat DFO Dr Khaled Kanak said, "Following success in prawn larvae production in the farm, the work has continued even after the outbreak of Covid-19. We will extend cooperation to private commercial hatcheries with technical support, if they want to produce prawn larvae."
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