Disaster-affected fish farmers deserve early response (The News Today)

The News Today (Bangladesh) published an article on the losses incurred by fish farmers in the central, north, and southern districts due to recurrent flooding. The loss in question may have a negative impact on the supply of the animal protein. Fish farming has flourished over the last two decades in the country, while farmed fish accounted for 56 percent of the total of 43 lakh tonnes of fish produced in the fiscal year 2017-18. It has lifted more than 20 lakh people out of poverty between 2000 and 2010, according to an IFPRI study. A tremendous job was done as it turned thousands of job-seekers into entrepreneurs. That the country is now ranked third in the world in terms of freshwater fish production is mostly because of the blue revolution (See the IFPRI book, The making of a blue revolution in Bangladesh: Enablers, impacts, and the path ahead for aquaculture)