Only two of the six sanctioned posts at the Sharsha upazila fisheries office in Jashore are filled. With four posts long vacant, field supervision, advice to fish farmers and government development programmes are suffering, Agricare24 reports.
The upazila has 32 government khas ponds and 7,173 privately owned ponds, which together produce about 29,686.86 tonnes of fish a year. Staff are struggling to supervise production and farm management on that scale.
According to the fisheries office, the post of fisheries extension and quality control officer has never been filled since it was created, and the posts of assistant upazila fisheries officer and office assistant-cum-computer operator have been vacant for about 11 years.
The shortage has complicated farm inspections, technical advice for new entrepreneurs, training, registration, collecting production figures and controlling fish diseases, and has added pressure on project work, mobile enforcement drives and paperwork. Farmers risk not getting timely advice and supervision.
Senior upazila fisheries officer Palash Bala said the office is being run with just two people, and the long-vacant key posts make routine work, field supervision and government programmes very difficult. People involved say the posts must be filled quickly to keep production and services to farmers going.
Photo: Zitu.madcap0901125 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Agricare24
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