Author(s): FM Kamrul Islam, Abdulla-Al-Asif, Meraz Ahmed, Md Samadul Islam, Baadruzzoha Sarker, Md Abu Zafar and Mizanur Rahman

Abstract: The present study was conducted to evaluate the performances of resource poor farmers in fish farming at their homestead ponds in Sadar Upazila under Meherpur district from July to October 2015. Participatory Rural Appraisal tools such as questionnaire interview, cross check interview and secondary information were used to assess the performances in aquaculture activities. Thirty pond fish farmers were purposively selected, among them 10, 5, 5, and 10 participants were involved with carp-mola, carp-tilapia and carp-shing polyculture and vietnam koi mono-culture respectively. The result showed that the majority of the farmers (33.33%) had 51-100 decimal cultivable land followed by 20 and 16.67% participants who possessed 151-200 and >300 decimal of land respectively. It was found that the highest percentage of participants (73.33%) primary occupation was agriculture followed by fish farming (3.33%). A majority of the farmers (53.33%) started fish farming only before 1-5 years influenced by the positive result of fish culture by the villagers and 20% each have started before 6-10 and 11-15 years back. Only 6.67% farmers started fish culture in 16 years before who were the pioneers of fish farming in the region. The average pond size in the area was found 15 decimal with a range of 7 to 35. Before starting fish culture all the farmers got training and inputs support for fish culture from a local NGO called Daridra Bimochon Sangstha (DBS). Prior to start fish farming all of the farmers followed standard procedure of pond preparation and fish fry release in their ponds. Majority farmers (90%) applied homemade feed, whereas rest applied commercial feed to their fish. By contrast, 90% farmers used to feed their fish and rest was reluctant to provide feed to the fish. Almost twenty seven percent respondents annual income was between BDT 61,000 to 80,000 followed by 20 and 10% whose income was 100000-150000 and >150000 BDT per year. During the culture operation, farmers usually had some problems such as pond drying, disease outbreak, dike erosion, shade of tree over the ponds, theft, snakes eating the fish etc.

Pages: 281-288  |  1169 Views  80 Downloads

Download Full Article: Click Here