By M. Gulam Hussain
Overall editing and formatting by Alaina Dismukes and Laura Zseleczky
Kh. Mahbubul Haque, director general for the Bangladesh Department of Fisheries (DoF), officially received the rapid-growing WorldFish Generation 3 (G3) rohu on behalf of DoF during a day-long international workshop held on May 9, 2023. Rohu is an economically and culturally important carp species for polyculture in Bangladesh. Haque thanked the team of researchers responsible for developing the genetically improved generation of fish and making it available for dissemination to both public and private sectors.
The workshop, organized by the WorldFish Carp Genetic Improvement Program, was held at the Bangladesh International Conference Center (Carnival Hall), Agargaon, Dhaka. It brought together over 200 international and national participants from WorldFish, DoF, the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), carp hatchery associations, universities, fish hatchery owners, and farmers. Haque and Essam Mohammed, director general for WorldFish, were, respectfully, the chief guest and special guest in the inaugural session of the workshop. The Carp Genetic Improvement Program was funded by the Fish Innovation Lab from 2021-2023. M. Gulam Hussain, Fish Innovation Lab Asia regional coordinator; John Benzie, acting director of Aquatic Food Biosciences for WorldFish; and Mathew Hamilton, lead principal investigator of the Carp Genetic Improvement Program and senior geneticist for WorldFish, represented the Fish Innovation Lab activity. The sessions were chaired by Christopher Price, regional director in South Asia for WorldFish.
In 2012, WorldFish initiated the Rohu Genetic Improvement Program in Bangladesh by collecting spawn from the Halda, Jamuna, and Padma rivers. Generation 1 (2016), Generation 2 (2018), and G3 (2020) rohu were subsequently developed. In trials conducted across 19 farms in Bangladesh, G3 rohu grew, on average, 37% more rapidly than an unimproved (i.e., control) rohu strain and a well-regarded commercial strain. Generation 3 rohu has been disseminated to private and public hatcheries for multiplication and was made commercially available to rohu growers in 2022. WorldFish also maintains genetic improvement programs for catla and silver carp in Bangladesh, using the same family-based selective breeding techniques adopted for rohu.
The Carp Genetic Improvement Program’s research was first initiated under the USAID-funded Aquaculture Income and Nutrition project of WorldFish in 2013 and continued until 2017. From 2018 to 2020, the program was financially supported by the USAID-funded Bangladesh Aquaculture and Nutrition Activity. More recently, the Carp Genetic Improvement Program has continued with support from the Fish Innovation Lab, housed in the Global Center for Aquatic Health and Food Security at Mississippi State University, USA, and the CGIAR Research Initiative on Resilient Aquatic Food Systems for Healthy People and Planet.
During the workshop, Mohammed thanked all the donor organizations for their continuous support of the program. Before concluding the workshop, Price distributed appreciation crests to a number of pioneer carp hatchery owners from the Jashore region, BFRI, USAID, and the Fish Innovation Lab.
For more on the event, visit https://tinyurl.com/3xj6pte9.
Published May 24, 2023
