Staff Reporter :
Jatka Conservation Week-2016 started on Wednesday across the country in order to protect the young hilsha less than 10 inches in length and to boost hilsa production.
To make the week effective, ‘Let Jatka Grow up: Our Golden Days to Come Back’ had been taken as the slogan along with engaging special mobile courts to help enforce the drive against the illegal hilsha catching and its trading.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock has also chalked out various
programmes at upazila and district levels in the country’s coastal region marking the week.
“The Jatka Conservation Week started from Ramgati upazila in Laxmipur with a boat rally,” Fisheries and Livestock Minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque said this at a press conference held in the Matshya Bhaban on Wednesday.
The minister said, hilsha contributes about 11 percent of the country’s fish output and one percent of total GDP.
About five lakh people of fishermen community directly depend on hilsa fishing while about 25 lakh on its selling, processing and transportation, the minister said.
Because of taking various steps to conserve hilsa, he said, its production went up by 3.87 lakh metric tonnes in fiscal 2014-15, and a huge quantity of hilsa was caught from the rivers of southern region during January and February last.
As the fishermen in the country’s coastal belt are very poor, the government is distributing food grains among them to prevent them from jatka catching, Sayedul Hoque told journalists.
About 1.59 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were distributed among fishermen’s families in the last six years under the Vulnerable Group Feeding Programme (VGF), he said.
The Fisheries Minister urged all to come forward to stop jatka catching, processing and selling, and help the government boost hilsa production.
Jatka Conservation Week-2016 started on Wednesday across the country in order to protect the young hilsha less than 10 inches in length and to boost hilsa production.
To make the week effective, ‘Let Jatka Grow up: Our Golden Days to Come Back’ had been taken as the slogan along with engaging special mobile courts to help enforce the drive against the illegal hilsha catching and its trading.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock has also chalked out various
programmes at upazila and district levels in the country’s coastal region marking the week.
“The Jatka Conservation Week started from Ramgati upazila in Laxmipur with a boat rally,” Fisheries and Livestock Minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque said this at a press conference held in the Matshya Bhaban on Wednesday.
The minister said, hilsha contributes about 11 percent of the country’s fish output and one percent of total GDP.
About five lakh people of fishermen community directly depend on hilsa fishing while about 25 lakh on its selling, processing and transportation, the minister said.
Because of taking various steps to conserve hilsa, he said, its production went up by 3.87 lakh metric tonnes in fiscal 2014-15, and a huge quantity of hilsa was caught from the rivers of southern region during January and February last.
As the fishermen in the country’s coastal belt are very poor, the government is distributing food grains among them to prevent them from jatka catching, Sayedul Hoque told journalists.
About 1.59 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were distributed among fishermen’s families in the last six years under the Vulnerable Group Feeding Programme (VGF), he said.
The Fisheries Minister urged all to come forward to stop jatka catching, processing and selling, and help the government boost hilsa production.
