Meherpur's two government fish hatcheries have been shut for years. The Gangni upazila hatchery has produced nothing for about 20 years, and the one in the district town has also long been idle. Fish farmers have to bring fry from other districts, which raises costs, and the lack of good fry eats into their profits.
Local fish entrepreneurs and fry traders say the Gangni hatchery ran from 1996 to 2005, producing fry of many species for local farms and for Chuadanga and Kushtia. The hatcheries now lie abandoned, their equipment gone, and there are complaints that the farm land has been occupied.
District fisheries figures list 1,829 ponds suitable for fish farming in Sadar, 3,995 in Gangni and 614 in Mujibnagar, 6,438 in all, plus 16 open water bodies. Their fry now come from hatcheries in Jashore, Jhenaidah, Naogaon and Santahar. Long journeys add transport costs and risk losing fry, and farmers who cannot stock on time see their production plans upset. The fisheries department itself buys more than a lakh taka of fry from outside each year with public money to release into ponds.
The fisheries department says a shortage of staff, broken equipment and unprofitable production lie behind the closures.
District fisheries officer Rabiul Islam said that although fish farming has grown, the district still depends on others for quality fry. About 62 percent of its ponds are in Gangni, so reviving the government hatcheries there and elsewhere would transform fry supply. The Sadar hatchery is being prepared to return to production next year, which would cut dependence on other districts, transport costs and fry losses, he said. The report is by Krishi Shomoy's Meherpur correspondent.
Photo: Syed Sajidul Islam / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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