Bangladesh, being a riverine country, is focussed immensely on its fisheries sector and thus huge amounts of resources is always being put forth for the research of better methods of farming fish in the country. To that end, researchers have developed at least 20 new methods to increase production of various species of fish in the country over the past 36 years. This augurs well as it means that the country is advancing well-rounded on all sides of research.
According to a report published in this daily, three institutes have been set up in Chandpur all together called River Water Fisheries Research Centre, Technological Laboratory and Immunological Disease Lab. There are two more research centres as sub-centres of Chandpur river basin, known as Rangamati river sub-centre and Khepupara river sub-centre of Patuakhali.
Fisheries have annual growth of 8 percent,
and now accounts for half of all fish
consumed by people around the world
These research centres are working continuously to improve the fish output of the country. Already there has been an increase in the production of hilsa in the country has exceeded 5 lakh 33 thousand tons. The research centres have come up with a number of new technologies which will provide additional boost to the economy through fish cultivation.
At the same time, aquaculture or fish farming (known as the “blue revolution”) has been rapidly expanding. In fact, it is the fastest growing food production sector globally, with average annual growth of 8 percent, and now accounts for half of all fish consumed by people around the world.
Since aquaculture was introduced in Bangladesh in the 1980s, the industry has grown rapidly. And the country is now the world’s sixth largest producer of aquaculture products. We hope that this upward trend of fisheries sector and research is continued in the future. There is massive scope for improvement in the sector with improved and technologically advanced ways of fish farming.