Staff Reporter, Mymensingh :
Aquaculture makes a huge contribution to the economy of southern Bangladesh. The estimated total value of fish and shrimp production only in the southern Bangladesh is USD 1.45 billion. The estimated total number of aquaculture farms in the seven districts such as Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Jashore, Barisal, Bhola, and Gopalganj is 547,000. Farmers earn a total profit of USD 670,000.
Researchers Dr. Ben Belton, Michigan State University, USA and Dr. Mohamamd Mahfujul Haque, Department of Aquaculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University presented the key findings in the outreach workshop with development partners on `Harnessing Machine Learning to Estimate Aquaculture Production and Value-chain Performance in Bangladesh’ at Conference Hall of the Department of Fisheries, Matsya Bhaban, Dhaka on Thursday.
According to Ben Belton aquaculture directly creates full time equivalent employment for total of 430,000 people in Southwest Bangladesh, of which 15% are women. Use of commercial pelleted feeds that speed up fish growth has increased dramatically over the past decade, supporting large increases in fish production in the Southwest. The total quantity of pelleted feed used by aquaculture farms in the Southwest in 2020 was 225,000 metric tons (30% of total feed used). The remaining 70% of feed is comprised of traditional feeds like broken rice and rice bran, totaling 530,000 metric tons. The Department of Aquaculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) has organised this Outreach Workshop as part of the project activities of the said project funded by the USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish. The project was implemented by Michigan State University, Bangladesh Agricultural University, WorldFish and CIAT, Vietnam. The project was implemented USAID zone of influence districts in southern Bangladesh such as Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Jashore, Barisal, Bhola, and Gopalganj. Vice-chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University Prof Lutful Hassan was present as the Chief Guest. He emphasized the importance of further collaborative research with BAU and other potential stakeholders such as DoF, BFRI, WorldFish, etc. to develop sustainable aquaculture in Bangladesh. Kh. Mahbubul Haque, Director General, Department of Fisheries (DoF) has shown his interest to use modern technique like machine learning tool to gauge aquaculture and fisheries resource statistics across the country. Mr. Christopher Ross Price, Regional Director South-Asia, WorldFish and Professor Dr. M. A. Salam, President, Bangladesh Agricultural University Teachers Association were present as the Special Guests.
The workshop was chaired by Prof Dr. Md. Abul Mansur, Dean, Faculty of Fisheries, BAU while Dr. Ben Belton, Principal Investigator, Harnessing Machine Learning Project, Michigan State University, USA and WorldFish welcome address to the workshop with overview of the aims, objectives, and activities of the project. The workshop ends with a number of presentations like survey methods, farm survey results, fish trader & feed trader, etc.
The learning outcomes from the project would be useful to build other project to estimate total aquaculture production and value-chain performance in the entire country, said Dr. Mohammad Mahfujul Haque, the Host Country (Bangladesh) Principal Investigator of the said project.
