Fish farmers in Jessore’s Chanchra area are facing huge financial loss due to an epidemic of an unknown disease that is attacking a particular species of fish.
Sources said the species, Vietnamese climbing perch, was introduced in the hatcheries at the beginning of the season, but the fungal disease has killed nearly 80% of the population since it broke out four and a half months ago.
Chanchra, known as the capital of fish farming in the country, has around 80 fish hatcheries producing fish that are supplied to the rest of the country.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, several farmers said they heavily invested in the particular species of climbing perch – “koi machh” in Bangla – and are now facing a collective loss of more than Tk50 crore due to the epidemic.
“I released around 150,000 hatchlings of Vietnamese climbing perch in my pond; the disease have wiped out all of them,” said Anwar Hossain Nannu, an award-winning fish farmer and owner of Adarsha Matshya Khamar. “This disease caused me a loss worth around Tk8.5 lakh.”
Officials at the Jessore substation of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) have not been able to help the farmers as they are not equipped to diagnose the disease.
“That species is foreign and is having trouble with adjusting to Bangladeshi climate. That is likely the reason of the outbreak,” said Md Ramzan Ali, district fisheries officer in Jessore. “We are merely a substation. We do not have modern laboratory facilities to run tests and determine what this disease is. But we are working on finding cure for the disease.”
If a full-fledged laboratory is established in Jessore, it will be much easier and quicker to determine and cure all kinds of diseases and such a huge loss can be avoided, he further said.
Extreme weather conditions have not helped matters either, said Anwarul Kabir Anu, general secretary of fish farmers’ welfare association in the district.“Not only the disease, but drought and heavy rain have severely affected our fish production as well.”
Farmers could not release hatchlings in their ponds on time due to drought. When they did manage to release them in the ponds, bouts of heavy rain caused the ponds to overflow, and most of the fish washed away.
“I released around 300,000 Tilapia hatchlings in my three ponds this year,” said Nazrul Islam, owner of Abir Matshya Khamar. “But incessant rain caused the banks of my ponds to break and the water to overflow, and all the fish got washed away. I incurred around Tk15 lakh of loss because of that.”
The combined financial loss due to the outbreak of the unknown disease and unfavourable weather conditions has caused a major setback for the farmers – to the point where they are having difficulties in paying their utility bills and bank loan instalments.
Some farmers have been affected worse than others, having been forced to shut down their hatcheries.
“I have trade loans, and I am having trouble paying them off because of this loss,” Anwar Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.
The affected farmers urged the government to help them tackle the loss by cancelling loan interests, providing subsidies to cover for the loss, and introducing easier loan schemes.
They also demanded a modern BFRI laboratory in Jessore to facilitate fish production in Chanchra.
