BSS, Khulna :Cultivation of tiger shrimp virtually appeared as means of new livelihood in remote Koyra upazila of Khulna for farmers as the devastating 2009 AILA cyclone visibly made for good the area unsuitable for green agriculture.Farmers said they waited for years expecting the land to regain fertility for crops overcoming wraths of increased salinity caused by the cyclone seven years ago but eventually were forced to adopt cultivation of tiger shrimp, better known as Bagda Chingri, grown better in saline water.”We can’t even regain the cost of seedbeds of rice like amon and boro because of the permanent salinity (caused by AILA),” said farmer Harun-ur-Rashid, a resident of the area who used to cultivate crops.He said the situation prompted him to cultivate shrimp on 5 acres of land last year which appeared as a good initiative in terms of financial returns.”One can easily earn Tk 2 lakh by cultivating Bagda Chingri on every one acre of land every year,” he said.On May 25, 2009 night, the AILA hit a vast part of southwestern Khulna with Koira and Gabura of Satkhira being the worst affected areas. It claimed around 200 human lives, leveled thousands of homesteads, killed huge number of cattle and exposed landmass to inundation in saline waters for nearly three years.Hundreds of people were forced to desert their homes for years for joblessness as the cyclone made the land unsuitable for crop cultivation.Under a massive government-led rehabilitation campaign the people returned and rebuilt their homes in the subsequent years but their livelihood remained to be at stake because of the unusual salinity in the region.”I have been cultivating tiger shrimp on saline lands for the last four years and getting satisfactory profits . . . last year I earned Tk 5 lakh from shrimp cultivation and I am expecting more dividend this year,” said 60-year-old Abdur Rahim, another resident in the neighbourhood.Shrimp farmers collect fry from natural water bodies like rivers and canals in the neighbourhood.Deputy Director of Khulna Fisheries Department Ranajit Kumar Paul said farmers nw took interest in bagda shrimp at Koyra as “it grows in huge volume in saline-prone land”.He said the scenario prompted the fisheries department to provide them training for shrimp cultivation.Senior Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute Salaine Water Center Dr M Latiful Islam said favorable environment, quality shrimp fry, close observation and high protein feed for shrimp could ensure higher production.Khulna district fisheries officer Shamim Haider said 5,894 hectares of land were now brought under tiger shrimp cultivation in Koyra while previously the shrimp was cultivated in less than 3,000 hectares.Official statistics indicated tiger shrimp has great export potentials.Environmentalists, however, expressed their reservations against widespread shrimp cultivation converting arable lands into shrimp enclosures.”If the entire area is dedicated for shrimp that will seal the scopes for the land to regain fertility . . . it will not be good for ecosystem,” Babul Hawladar, the Khulna region coordinator of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA) told BSS.
