The government has given fish feed producers two months to follow its production guideline. Fish feed factories and products on the market will be inspected and tested, said Fisheries and Livestock Minister Mohammad Aminur Rashid.

He said this in reply to journalists' questions at a press conference at the Secretariat on Thursday, 13 August, marking National Fisheries Fortnight.

Saying that the main campaign of this year's fortnight is for safe fish production, the minister said: "There is a government guideline for all our feed producers. They must produce feed according to that guideline."

He said: "We have already held a meeting with them, in this very room, and instructed them to produce according to the government guideline. It is not that nothing has been produced outside the guideline; some has. We have gone to the field and seen it, and we have given them exactly two months to put things right. After that, you will not be able under any circumstances to produce outside the guideline the government sets."

The minister added: "We will visit those mills. We will go to sales centres and test the products they have in the field." He said a month and a half of the two-month deadline remains.

Aminur Rashid said: "On feed, especially quality feed, of any kind, whether for fish, chickens, ducks, cattle or goats, even vegetables, we are extremely serious about quality. This is one of the main priorities of this government. We are very conscious that whatever we produce should truly serve people's welfare."

Asked about fish farming beneath poultry and duck sheds, the minister said: "Poultry or duck farms with fish farming underneath is not scientific. I agree with you. The government has never encouraged it. Some people may have done this on their own initiative, and it has come to our notice, but the number is not very large. A plan has already been taken to discourage those running such projects."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.