Rows of ponds now line the villages of Char Samaiya union in Bhola Sadar upazila. Filled with river water, they are used to farm many local and foreign species of fish commercially, and by local estimates about Tk 200 crore worth of fish is bought and sold from the union every year.

A few years ago people in the union had little work. Now it has more than 500 fish farmers - traders, shopkeepers and salaried workers among them - farming fish alongside their other work. Some who started with a single pond now run farms of 10 to 35 ponds.

Maksud Matabbar, who started from nothing, now farms fish in 35 ponds. Fish grow quickly in river water and feed costs are comparatively low, he said, so production costs fall and profits are good. Another farmer, Md Sanaullah, said far more people were turning to fish farming than before because fish fetch good prices at market.

The trade has also created jobs: hundreds of people work every day catching, sorting, weighing, supplying feed, transporting and marketing fish. With catches in the river falling, many fishermen now work as labourers on the farms.

Farmers do not have to travel to sell. When ponds are harvested, wholesalers arrive with trucks and pickup vans from Bhola, Barishal and surrounding areas; the fish are sorted and weighed on the pond bank and go on to markets in the district and elsewhere in the country.

Md Mehedi Hasan Bhuiyan, senior upazila fisheries officer of Bhola Sadar, said Char Samaiya's farmers were making an important contribution to fish production, and the fisheries department was supporting them with technical advice, training and help with modern technology.

Reported by the Bhola correspondent of Krishi Shomoy.

Source: Krishi Shomoy