Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas on Wednesday told Parliament that hilsa accounts for some 11 percent of Bangladesh’s total fish production.
Responding to a scripted question from AKM Maidul Islam (Kurigram-3), the Fisheries Minister came up with the statistics in the House.
He said the production of hilsa during fiscal 2011-2012 was 3.465 lakh metric tonnes.
Latif Biswas also said the country earned around Tk 352.5 crore in fiscal 2010-2011 by exporting some 8539 metric tonnes of hilsa.
The minister said the previous government had provided food assistance worth 6906 metric tonnes for the fishermen who refrained from catching Jhatka while the present government so far provided 87074.41 metric tonnes of food assistance.
Responding to a scripted question from Nurunnabi Chowdhury (Bhola-3), Latif Biswas said a total of 12 species out of 260 sweet water fishes are ‘critically endangered.’
“A total of 28 species of sweet water fish have been identified as endangered ones, while 14 species vulnerable. Of the identified ones, five species are critically endangered, 18 species endangered and nine species are vulnerable,” said the minister told the House.
He also said a total of 32 species out of 54 species of fish are small-sized ones.
Latif Biswas said it is not true that hundreds of species of sweet water fish are getting disappeared.
Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute has been able to develop artificial reproduction fry of 18 endangered species of sweet water fish, he said.
Responding to another tabled question from Mohammad Shahiduzzaman Sarkar (Naogaon-2), the minister said a total of 2.32 crore cows, 14.43 lakh buffalos, 2.51 crore goats and 30.82 lakh sheep are now in the country.
Source: UNB Connect
