Fisheries

Fisheries sector plays a important role in meeting the animal protein requirement, foreign exchange earnings and socioeconomic development of the rural poor by alleviating poverty through employment creation in an agro based country like Bangladesh

There is a strong consumer favorite for fresh water fish. According to the World Bank 75% of the total fish consumed in a year from fresh water sources, with the rural people consuming more fresh water fish (76%) compared to their urban people (68%). The relative contribution of fish to calorie and protein eating from animal sources is also high in the rural sector.

The contribution of fish to the per capita protein and calorie from animal sources, for the rural population, has been expected to be 74 percent and 72 percent respectively, and for the urban population, has been estimated to be 67 percent and 70 percent respectively. The average annual per capita fish consumption of Bangladesh is estimated as 13 kg.

In Employment and Livelihoods about 8% of the total population depends on this sector for livelihood and about 73% of households were involved in subsistence fishing in the floodplains in 1987/88. Around 1 crore people are also involved in fish marketing and fish processing. Thus the involvement of a large section of the people in this area is clear and the pressure on fishery resources is therefore continuing to increase.

Fish and fish products plays a vital role in foreign currency earnings for the country. In 2005-06 an estimated 68,829 tons of fisheries export items earned a total of 45 crore dollar as foreign exchange.

From the above, it is clear that fisheries sector is important for the overall development of our country especially economic development and to meet the various necessity of our society. Fisheries sector has comprehensive contribution to other sectors of the society. We should be more put emphasis on this sector for assuring its growth.