The haor of Itna in Kishoreganj, long known as a fish store for the country, is yielding too little fish even at the height of the monsoon season, and fishers' incomes have collapsed. Yet the upazila fisheries office records open-water production rising from 9,014.89 tonnes in 2022-23 to 13,382.98 tonnes in 2024-25 and 14,536.32 tonnes in 2025-26, with 0.475, 0.55 and 1.09 tonnes of fingerlings released into public waters in those years.

Traders who supply the Jatrabari wholesale market in Dhaka tell a different story. Nikhil Barman, 60, and Gopesh Barman, 35, said they sent about Tk 11 crore of fish between May 2025 and April 2026, but only about Tk 3 crore from May to mid-September this year, although August to October normally accounts for about half the year's supply. Golda (giant freshwater prawn), dima prawn, kajoli, rui, batashi, bacha, rita and ayre, they said, are not reaching even 25 percent of past volumes, and prices have risen by Tk 200-300 a kilogram depending on species.

Fishers blame the combined effect of banned nets, unplanned infrastructure, submersible embankments, silting of the water bodies, heavy pesticide use in farming and climate change. A decade ago the haor's freshwater prawn was in demand abroad; now the prawn and several other species are on the way to disappearing from its rivers and channels. The shortage has pushed local markets towards farmed fish, putting prices beyond lower-middle-income households.

Haor households live on rice in the dry season and fish in the monsoon. After heavy rain and an early flood damaged the last Boro harvest, farmers had hoped to make up the loss with the monsoon catch; that hope has gone too. Biswajit Barman, 45, of the fishing village at Itna Sadar, said that four or five years ago he could land Tk 5,000-6,000 of fish a day. Fishers and residents are asking for banned nets to be stopped, strict watch during the breeding season and the water bodies' natural condition restored.

Reported by Krishi Shomoy's Kishoreganj correspondent. Source: Krishi Shomoy