ABSTRACT
The persistence of the study was to evaluate the pond fish culture and marketing system in edict to provide present information on fish culture, barriers of fish culture, fish availability and hence marketing channel for consumer in Rangpur district during July to December 2016. The study revealed that infrastructure of wholesale and marketing fish markets were not satisfactory with regarding to sales area, packaging, sanitation, water supply, drainage, cleaning, washing, maintenance and repairs except very few. The present study highlights the development of pond fish production and marketing through popular level organization. In the present study the marketing channel was old-style and remains in the hands of private traders and government are not so cooperative regarding the issues. So, the price of the fish changes of the different intermediaries: farias, beparies, retailers, and aratdars. The commission agents usually earn about 3-4% commissions from the farmers, hence the price of fish increases in every stage by 20-40%.
Key words: Fish culture, pond fish, marketing system.
Introduction
The total inland area at present is 46, 99,394 hectors in Bangladesh (DoF, 2015). This retains a tremendous scope of fish habitat and diversity of aquatic organisms. Inland fisheries contribute about 83.22% (DoF, 2015) of countries total fish production. Fish and Fisheries sector play an immensely important role on the socio-economic development of Bangladesh from time immemorial and it is the part of our cultural heritage. Fisheries sector contributes about 2.01% of the total export earning, 3.69% to GDP and 22.60% to agricultural sector (DoF, 2015). Fish also contributed about 60% to the nation’s animal protein intake during 2013-2014 (DoF, 2015). At present annual fish intake by an individual is 19.60 kg and the annual fish demand is 33.90 metric tons (DoF, 2015). In terms of narrowing the gap between demand and availability, aquaculture has expanded, diversified, intensified and technologically advanced over the past thirty years (Pillay, 2001). The dynamic aquaculture has been developed to become the fastest growing food-producing sector in the world and has significantly contributed to world food security (Jia et al., 2001). Fish is grown mainly on natural foods in the water, which are enhanced by the regular application of livestock and poultry manure as well as inorganic fertilizers like urea and triple super phosphate. In addition, in the semi intensive production system, farmers supply rice bran, wheat, oil cake as supplementary feed (DoF, 2001), of which rice bran is the main supplementary feed for fish in pond aquaculture (Karim, 2006). This aquaculture has been shifting towards more commercial production as the demand and price of fish has been increasing with the growth of population. Small-scale farms have also been able to increase production by intensifying management and input use. Many small-scale farms have also intensified production by increasing inputs as well as integrating with agriculture, particularly with vegetables and rice (ADB, 2005; Karim, 2006). The improvement of production technologies certainly increased yield and income from pond aquaculture and benefited farming households. However, the broader impact of pond aquaculture to rural livelihoods, particularly the people involved directly or indirectly in the production managements is not well understood. The utilization of the fishermen is mainly due to the monopolistic set up of the fish traders. Rangpur region is recognized as the fisheries one of our country. Many varieties of freshwater fish (139 species) are available in Rangpur district (Chandra, 2009). Marine fish species are also found abundantly in this town. Marketing system of Rangpur is yet to be understood as there is no previous information on this aspect. Therefore, the present investigation was
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