This article was orginally writted by Md Aynal Haque for BSS. 

Gulam Saklain of Durgapur Upazila in Rajshahi was busy studying Chemistry (Honours) in Rajshahi University. 

But something kept gnawing at him – the entrepreneurial all too many are familiar with, but few commit to. 

In 1994, however, while staring across his lands, he spotted a pot comprising around two bighas of land. It was barely in use. 

This would be the turning point. When Gulam took his idea to his friends and relatives, he mostly met discouragement. 

But with a small investment 7,000 takas, Gulam began anyway, expecting a modest rate of return. But his profit on the investment came to 6,000 takas.

He didn’t looked back since.

Currently, he leases ponds covering 1,000 bighas for fish farming, creating employment for 152 people.

“I chose fish farming along with agriculture as my profession. I decided to farm fish while studying at university. But at that time, no one in my family wanted me to enter this profession. Since then, I have been farming fish to this day. Now my pond area is about 1,000 bighas. From here, about 20 trucks take fish to the capital every day.”

Meanwhile, Rajshahi division has emerged as one of Bangladesh’s leading freshwater fish-producing regions, with a remarkable expansion in carp farming, including Ruhi and Katla, driving annual production beyond 5.5 lakh metric tons across its eight districts.  

The profit-margins draw fishermen and farmers. 

After meeting the demand of Rajshahi Division, this fish is sent daily to the capital and other regions across the country, resulting in sales of nearly 200 crore takas per day. 

The number of ponds in Rajshahi has also increased over the past few years – as losses in crops have grown, farmers have turned to fish farming.

The Department of Fisheries, Rajshahi Divisional Office reported that there are a total of 449,653 ponds in the eight districts of the division. There are 165,706 fish farmers.

Annually, 596,467 metric tons of fish are produced. Of this, after meeting local demand, 150,000 metric tons of fish are sent to different parts of the country.

Along with creating employment opportunities for nearly 300,000 people, fish are also being exported abroad.

Fisheries Department officials said the process of sending fresh fish from this district began 24 years ago.

Fresh fish is sent daily to at least 25 districts, including Dhaka, Chattogram, Barishal, Sylhet, and Mymensingh.

Sources added that every day, from evening to late night, more than 500 trucks of fresh fish go to different parts of the country.

Each truck carries at least 700 to 800kg of fish. 

Among the Rajshahi Division, which ranks top in the country for freshwater carp production, Natore and Naogaon have the highest fish production and sales.

In the ponds of these regions, various types of fish are farmed, including Rohu, Katla, Mrigal, Silver Carp, Pabda, Tangra, and Shing.
Idris Ali, another fish farmer from Durgapur Upazila, said more than 50 trucks of fish go to Dhaka from this upazila. 

But things aren’t like they used to be. More supply has meant a drop in fish prices, while feed prices have gone up.

“We have to pay an extra 3,000–4,000 taka in truck fares to take fish to Dhaka. No financial assistance is available from the Department of Fisheries. However, they organise various kinds of advice and seminar, which are beneficial,” Idris added.

The pond village of Pabna upazila

Within Rajshahi District, the most fish farming occurs in Paba Upazila. 

Upon entering Parila Union, you see pond after pond. Fish are being caught there.

A little further on, they are loaded onto small and large trucks filled with water parked on the road. 

From Parila village alone, about 50 trucks of fresh fish go daily to Dhaka and other district towns. And from all of Rajshahi, more than 200 trucks of fresh fish depart.

Mosharraf Hossain of Parila village has been sending fish to Dhaka and other districts for 14 years. He has ponds on about 22 bighas of land.
“Once, we sold fish only in Rajshahi. We didn’t get good prices. Later, we started taking fish to Dhaka and other districts by truck.”

At that time, one or two people had to be kept on the truck to manually spray water on the fish to keep those fresh. But now water is supplied using a shallow machine. 

“We also get good prices.” 

That day, he took 1,200 kg of fish in one truck to Dhaka’s New Market and sold the fish on the same day for 3 lakh takas. 

Saifuddin Yahia, Director of the Rajshahi Divisional Fisheries Department, said earlier, mixed fish farming was done only in Rajshahi.

Now it is happening in other districts of the division too. 

If the main fish in a pond is Rohu, then Silver Carp, Katla, and native small fish are also farmed.

This maintains balance in the pond. Along with sending large fish from this district, native Pabda, Shing, Koi, and Magur are also farmed. In addition, pabda fish is regularly exported to India.

He added that the farmers here follow proper practices for fish farming. They provide fish farming training to more than 1,500 people every year.

Note: Portions of this article published in BSS on12 July under the headline ‘Rajshahi fish farming booms as daily sales top Tk 20 crore’ have been slightly altered by Daily Waadaa to maintain style consistency.