Target to produce 3.5m tonnes of fish by 2015
Talha Bin Habib | Saturday, 7 March 2015
The government has a set a target to produce 3.5 million tonnes of fish by the end of 2015 under its ongoing rehabilitation project that involves Tk 1.28 billion (128 crore).
The "Rehabilitation of Infrastructure of Fish Seed Multiplication Firm and Production of Quality Fish Seed and Fingerling Project" is aimed at giving training to the private sector hatchery owners to increase the fish production.
The contribution of fisheries sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country is 4.39 per cent, according to the department of fisheries (DoF).
The country produced 3.4 million tonnes of fish that had a market value of Tk 500 billion during the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13.
During the FY 2011-12 the total fish production was 3.2 million tonnes and the market value was Tk 400 billion.
If the country can achieve its production target of the current fiscal, then the market value will be over Tk 520 billion, according to the DoF.
For gearing up the production of fishes the government has set up 120 hatcheries in different areas in the country to provide training to the people and hatchery owners.
A high official of the ministry of fisheries and livestock (MoFL) said they were considering extending the tenure of the project by three more years from July 2015.
The project, which was launched in 2012, has the objectives to modernise and rehabilitate the government hatcheries aiming at providing training to 20,000 private sector hatchery owners by 2021, according to the DoF.
The other objective of the project is to provide modern technology to the farmers for producing a sufficient quantity of fish in the country to fulfil the deficiency of protein.
Fisheries are the vital sector of the country's economy. Over 1.6 million people are involved in the sector for earning their livelihood.
"We hope we will be able to reach our target by producing 3.5 million tonnes of fish by the end of 2015," Fisheries and Livestock Minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque told the FE.
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