by Kristen Dechert with contributions from Md. Akhtaruzzaman Khan
Youth engagement in aquaculture is higher in Bangladesh compared to other agricultural sub-sectors, such as crop, livestock, and forestry, due to high profitability. Aquaculture is a major source of food and livelihoods in Bangladesh, and attracting young people to the field is a path to family nutrition and economic security. One such person who joined the aquaculture field at a young age, Rajob Ali started working as a farm manager at his father’s small-scale rice farm and now owns an aquaculture farm in Fulpur upazila under Mymensingh district of Bangladesh.
“At the age of 27, I engaged myself in this challenging business with a lot of uncertainty, but I was committed to success and worked hard at day and night in the farm. During that hard time, my father inspired me a lot and gave me 250 decimals (1.0 ha) of rice land for expanding my fish farm, which was a milestone to succeed in my life,” said Ali.
Production, efficiency, and profitability of sustainable aquaculture requires a delicate balance of considerations for inputs and outputs and environmental characteristics. Increasingly, technology adoption and involvement of age groups are important factors for the productivity and efficiency of aquaculture farms as well. Young and educated people are fast technology adopters, which may have positive impacts on productivity and efficiency, leading to increased access to fish for nutrition and economic security for individuals and families.
“I understood fish farming as a profitable business. In 2007, I initiated tilapia fish farming in a 50-decimals pond adjacent to my village house, and gradually I increased the pond area to reach 300 decimals in 2010. Now, I own my own fish farm of 2,400 decimals (approximately 9.72 ha) area, of which 1,800 decimals (7.30 ha) are leased ponds,” said Ali.
Through a Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish quick start project focused on improved rohu aquaculture in Bangladesh, researchers have learned that young fish farmers adopt technological aquaculture practices more than older farmers. For instance, the young fish farmers use fresh water and aerators for supplying more supplemented oxygen in their pond waters, acclimatize fish fry/fingerlings before stocking in their ponds for better survival rate, prepare ponds with limes and fertilizers for better plankton-rich natural food supply, and use industrial pellet feeds, which distribute to the fish in the pond through feeding trays for efficient use of feeds rather spreading those on the muddy floor of the pond bottom.
“In the Rohu Genome Quick Start project, we found that in the rohu-based carp polyculture system, the carp productivity of young farmers was 7.19% higher than that of the middle-aged farmers and 19.46% higher than the old-aged farmers. In the whole supply chain of aquaculture, young people engagement has recently been increased significantly in Bangladesh,” said Md. Akhtaruzzaman Khan, Professor of Agricultural Finance at Bangladesh Agricultural University and Bangladesh co-principal investigator for the Fish Innovation Lab Rohu Genome project.
Until recently in Bangladesh, fish cultivation was mostly a traditional system in which fingerlings were stocked in the ponds without fertilizing pond water and regular feeding or taking extra care to ensure high-quality fish. With the increasing demand for fish, the aquaculture systems have become more scientifically managed and shifted from this traditional approach to one that is more commercial. Through these advancements, aquaculture production in Bangladesh has increased 22 times during the last 30 years.
“Because of the technological innovation and availability of fast-growing, endemic and exotic carp species, fish farmers are finding aquaculture two to three times more profitable than rice cultivation,” said Khan.
At present, about 1.2 million people directly and more than 12 million people indirectly are involved in the aquaculture sector in Bangladesh, making this an important path to nutrition security and livelihoods for Bangladeshi youth like Ali.
“We had no status in the society due to low income, but with the financial solvency obtained through fish farming, this situation has gradually changed. Now, I am earning a handsome amount of money from the fish farm and have a nice brick house, which has changed our social status, and I have become a respected person in our locality,” Ali said.