Fisheries and livestock adviser Farida Akhter said hilsa production has fallen because illegal nets and the catching of jatka have not been fully stopped.
Even in peak season, little hilsa is reaching Barishal's Port Road market, and prices have put the fish out of reach of ordinary buyers.
A betel leaf market in Gournadi, Barishal, comes alive after dark five days a week, with trade worth crores of taka each day.
Government incentives of free seed and fertiliser have encouraged Barishal farmers to cultivate fallow land, adding some 3,419 hectares of cropland in a year.
Armed Police Battalion members in Barishal have built a nursery of about 10,000 fruit saplings on once-neglected land beside the Kirtankhola river.
Police in Barishal's Agailjhara arrested four people accused of trying to extort money at a temporary cattle market.
A 30-maund bull named Foni-2, born during Cyclone Fani, is being readied for sale at Eid-ul-Azha in Banaripara, Barishal, with an asking price of Tk 15 lakh.
Barishal division meets 80 per cent of Bangladesh's demand for amra, and its new GI status is expected to raise the fruit's profile at home and abroad.
Barishal's famous seasonal fruit amra has received registration as a geographical indication (GI) product.
Vegetable prices in Barishal have risen by Tk 5 to Tk 10 in a week, while fish and meat prices have been stable for two weeks.
Sugarcane farmers in Barishal's Babuganj are working all day to meet Ramadan demand for the adulteration-free molasses they make beside their fields.
Fishermen defying the hilsa ban in the Meghna sanctuary at Hizla and Mehendiganj in Barishal have repeatedly attacked officials and law enforcers.
A mobile court in Uzirpur, Barishal, sentenced a shopkeeper to one month's simple imprisonment for selling hilsa in defiance of the ban.
