Prospect of sweet water fish farming

The recently released FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) report on world fisheries is indeed heartening for fish-loving Bangladeshis. The report titled 'The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture' which features on its cover a photograph of sweet-water fishing by Bangladeshi fishermen in Rajshahi, highly acclaims the performance of the country's fish farming in ponds and water bodies. In the global context, according to the report, Bangladesh ranks fourth in sweet-water fish production, next to China, India and Myanmar in sequential order.
That the country's fish production has been able to keep up with the growing demand at home and abroad for around a decade or so is well known. An estimate shows that during the period between the year 2000 and 2014, fish production in the country soared nearly by 40 per cent. Export of fish has increased more than hundred per cent during the period. According to the BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) data, the country produced 3.45 million tonnes of fish in 2013-14, in which the volume of cultured and cultivated fish was as high as 2 million tonnes. What the FAO report has highlighted is the methodical and scientific approach to fish farming in Bangladesh, especially sweet water farming. This, one must agree, has been achieved by overcoming, though not fully, some of the impeding elements. A good deal of the success is attributed to scientific research and introduction of newer varieties of fish to the hatcheries by the relevant government agencies. However, enthused initiatives by a large number of people across the country must be recognised as the key contributor to the bonanza that the sector has been experiencing since the past decade, despite many deterrents. One such, and indeed a demoralising one, is that fish farmers are still not in the good book of the banks and financial institutions. Out of the Tk 140.00 billion agricultural loan disbursed by the government in the fiscal 2013-14, a paltry 10 per cent went to the fish farmers.
 Experts agree that Bangladesh is one of the most suitable places in the world for sweet-water fish farming. It has been estimated that open water bodies and innumerable ponds across the country account for more than two hundred thousand hectors of land, and intensive and extensive fish farming would require full utilisation of these repositories. While it is true that research and innovation has facilitated sweet water fish farming a lot, inadequate support in the all important financing arena is undesirable. Although the central bank is pursuing strongly its policy of farm loan and commercial banks are also responding to its directives, very little has so far gone to the fisheries sector, especially the sweet water fish farming sub-sector.  The FAO forecast is good enough to indicate that the prospect of Bangladesh's fisheries sector is unbounded. According to it, by the year 2022, Bangladesh will be one of the top fish producing nations of the world.