Cage fish farming brings boon for many people

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RAJSHAHI, Sept 27, 2017 (BSS)- Shafiul Alam Mukta, 28, of Pirijpur village under Godagari Upazila in the district, is now very happy over his cage fish farming as it changed his fate and made him self-reliant.

“I have sold 30,000 kilograms of fish produced from 37 cages and got profit Taka three lakh,” He said.

Like Mukta, many more youths of the village got profit after being farmed of fish in cage in the nearby Padma River.

Mukta said: “We have a 20-member cooperative society named ‘Padma Fish Care’ in Pirijpur village.

Accompanied by the twenty people, he launched a fish sanctuary in the Padma River. To make the sanctuary effective, cage fish farming had been launched there.

In May last year, Department of Fisheries first gave them 10 cages and later added more twenty. The department also provided them with fingerlings of monosex tilapia for rearing in the cages initiating cage fish farming in the river for the first time.

The number of cages has now been stood to 47. All the society members have become self-reliant. “We have a plan for enhancing the cage number,” Mukta expected.

Senior Upazila Fisheries Officer Shamsul Karim told BSS recently that the farmers proved that the cage fish farming is very much profitable. So, the department is trying its level best to expand cage fish farming here.

Farmers are happy with the output of tilapia culture, which takes little time and have a good demand in the market.

The fish species that supplies essential nutrients–particularly vitamin A, calcium, iron and zinc– to the people which is needed for every human beings.

Prof Dr Bidhan Chandra Das of Department of Zoology of Rajshahi University said there is a bright prospect of promoting cage fish farming method in existing rivers of Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj districts.

Cage culture has bright prospects of yielding around 10,000 tonnes of additional fishes valued at around Taka 150 crore only in the two districts annually.

A farmer can easily get neat profit worth Taka 35,000 with primary
investment of Taka four lakh in every month, he added.