Aquaculture in paddy field brings him good fortune

RANGPUR: Golap Hossain (3rd from right) showing off his catch of fishes grown in his paddy fields. — FE photo

Our Correspondent

RANGPUR, Feb 27: Golap Hossain of village Gopal under Kawnia upazila in Rangpur is one of those people who have become financially solvent by introducing small scale aquaculture in their paddy fields. Thanks to the initiative by Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) Bangladesh Project of World Fish Centre, which trained them on fish farming and vegetables cultivation in paddy fields.

CSISA-BD project, funded by USAID, is providing the marginal farmers of the upazila with all sorts of supports, office sources said.

"I do not have to ask anybody for fish when our relatives visit my house. It is always available with me", said Golap Hossain, a beneficiary of the project.

"I took a two-day long training on fish farming and vegetables cultivation in paddy fields from CSISA project in June last year and started fish farming on my 1.24 bighas of my paddy field and grew vegetables in the ridge of my paddy fields that gave me financial and nutritional supports", he added.

Apart from a huge amount of fish and vegetables consumed by his family he earned Tk 30,000 from fish cultivation and also Tk 5000 from vegetables cultivation in December last year. This year he is expecting more profit, he further said.

The people of other parts of the district are also showing their eagerness and coming to him to know the technology on how to cultivate fish in paddy fields, Golap added.

Talking to FE CSISA-BD project Rangpur hub officer Habibur Rahman said "We've set an example of how farmers can get maximum benefit using limited resources to make themselves financially solvent". Already a good number of farmers of the upazila have been benefited by the project, he said.

They are getting positive response from the people about fish farming in paddy fields and vegetable cultivation in the edge of the cultivable land. It is gradually getting popular in other parts of the district as well, he added.