Self-sufficiency in fish within two years likely: minister

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Economic Reporter :
The country is expected to attain self-sufficiency in fish in next two years with rapidly increasing production volume that by now earned Bangladesh the status of fourth major aquaculture producer, fisheries minister Sayedul Haq said.
“If this pace of production continues, we will be self sufficient in fish by 2018-2019,” he told the opening of a two-day workshop on fisheries research planning at Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) auditorium here on Thursday.
He said against the annual demand for 42 lakh tonnes, the current production volume was estimated to be 38.55 lakh tonnes in 2015-2016.
Citing the official statistics, the minister said the volume of fish production in 2014-15 2 was 37 lakh tones while in the subsequent year the figure stood at 38.55 lakh.
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) earlier this year released a global statistics report on fisheries which placed Bangladesh in fourth position in terms of aquatic production after China, India and Thailand.
“If not China, we will exceed India in fish production in near future if the pace remains unaffected,” Haq said.
Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) organized the workshop titled “Draw-up of a annual fisheries research planning for 2016-17” while it was chaired by BFRI Director General Dr Yahhia Mahmud.
Fisheries and Livestock Secretary M Maksudul Hasan Khan and Director General of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) Syed Arif Azad also joined the function along with researchers, officials, entrepreneurs, farmers and representatives of non-government organist ions dealing with fisheries.
Experts and officials attributed the enhanced production to innovation and application of 57 technologies on fish breeding, culture and management while the participants appreciated the fisheries department for successful dissemination of most of these technologies at the field level.
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