NATP-2 brings paradigm shift in fish productivity, supply chain management
Senior Staff Reporter, Rangpur :
Fisheries sector plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the country and contributes 3.57% to the national GDP. More than 12 percent of the whole population of Bangladesh depends on fisheries and aquaculture-related activities on full-time and part-time basis for their livelihoods. According to the yearbook of Fisheries Statistics of Bangladesh 2020-21, over the last four decades, the total fish production of Bangladesh has increased six times more from 7.54 lakh MT in 1983-84 to 46.21 lakh MT in 2020-21. Aquaculture production also increased about 22 times more by this time. Aquaculture growth performance is steadily increasing and currently contributes about 57% of the total production. According to the FAO report ‘The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022’, Bangladesh ranked 3rd in inland open water capture production and 5th in world aquaculture production. Currently, Bangladesh ranks 4th in tilapia production in the world and 3rd in Asia. These consistent growth performances are the results of various government initiatives implemented by the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.
National Agricultural Technology Programme (NATP) is designed to be implemented in three distinctive Phases. After the successful completion of NATP Phase I, the second phase named the NATP-Phase II (NATP-2) project is now being implemented with the objectives of increasing marginal farmers’ farm productivity and increasing farmers’ access to the market.
The project is being directly contributed by two ministries; i) Ministry of Agriculture (MoA),The Lead Ministry and ii) Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL). 01 October 2015 to 30 June 2023 (according to the 1st Revision) is the project Implementation Period and the Project activities are being carried out in 270 Upazilas (including 107 Upazilas selected from NATP-1) in 57 districts under 8 Divisions.
A total of 5282 Common Interest Groups (CIGs) having a total of 105,640 members have been formed. Out of 105,640 members, 37,397 (35.40%) are female and 1127 members are from ethnic communities. All CIGs are registered under the Department of Cooperatives, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives. All CIGs have opened bank accounts and generating regular savings. Each CIG saves an average of 86,790 taka. Therefore, the DoF CIGs mobilized about 45.84 crore taka in total, which have been investing in aquaculture productivity enhancement, market access, value chain development, etc.
For the capacity enhancement and minimize the knowledge LEAFs, adopting farmers training, experience sharing training workshop (Union based), LEAF special technology training etc. were organized and a total of 681152 client-days training were completed till November 2022. For improvement of knowledge and skills of the Government officers and project staffs, various training programs like food safety issues, basic aquaculture and agricultural extension, NATP-2 implementation, improved aquaculture technology, financial management and public procurement, monitoring & evaluation and reporting, etc. have arranged. DoF completed 30419 demonstrations of ten particular technology so far. As a result of these activities, about 66708 CIG farmers and 111030 non-CIG farmers have adopted the promoted and improved environment. In 39 selected waters of 33 Upazilas of 22 districts,
20 general Producer organizations (PO) and 2 special POs have been formed in the 22 Upazilla on a pilot basis, which are now in full functioning. Two post-harvest service centers (PHSC), one at Singra, Natore and another one at Trishal, Mymensingh have been constructed with a fish landing platform, sorting-grading, dressing, ice plant, water pump, and insulated cold storage facilities, etc. One office manager for each general PO and one Local Marketing Facilitator (LMF) in each special PO has been appointed to support management and record keeping. East PO and the general POs are provided with a pickup van and a feed machine, from which a regular income is generating. For online fish marketing, one website, www.pofishmarket.com and a related mobile app named ‘FishMarket’ have been developed for POs. This is the first government initiative for an online wholesale fish marketing system. A total of 8789 metric tons of fish have been marketed through PO including 1980 metric tons online sale.
AIF (Agriculture Innovation Fund) is the main source of direct funding for technology transfer and market access facilities.
So far 52% grant was provided for productivity enhancement and the rest 48% given for market access development.
