IPRS technology creates new hope for fish farmers in Rajshahi region || Observerbd

In-pond raceway system (IPRS), a highly sophisticated innovative aquaculture technology, has created a high hope among the fish farmers in the region, including its vast Barind tract.
The hope has been generated with the breakthrough of launching an IPRS fish farming venture at Noyagola Bolunpur, located in the outskirts of Chapainawabganj district town, around two years back.
Salient features of an IPRS are air-lift, bottom aeration, cells and waste collection arrangements that make this system unique ensuring optimal water chemistry that allows super high density stocking.
Akbar Hossain, the owner of "Nawab Matsya Khamar Prakalpa [Nawab Fish Farm Project]" is using IPRS in his ponds producing different carps, Tilapia and Pangas commercially.
He installed the system in 20 acres of his land creating scopes of producing around 32 tons of fish from every 250 cubic metres using the IPRS promising a dramatic rise in fish production.
In the modern system, about 10,000 fishes can be reared at a time in a bigha of water body against hardly 300 to 400 fishes in the same area in conventional method, Akbar, a national award winning fisheries entrepreneur, said.
He said this is an environmentally friendly aquaculture technology that can help to ensure quality and safe seafood for human consumption. Various types of fish species of different sizes can be cultivated at the same time in the same pond.
"We have stocked Rui, Catla, Common Carp, Grass Carp, Pangas, Tilapia, and Pabda species of fish," said Akbar Hossain, adding depending on market demand fish will be stocked in future on the basis of trial specific species.
He is expected to harvest 2,000 tonnes of fishes valued at around Taka 10 crore from the 20-acre pond a year meaning that he will make a profit of Taka five crore.
District Fisheries Officer Dr Amimul Ehsan, who is extending technical support to the venture since its very beginning, said all the conditions of Good Aquaculture Practices (GAP) are being followed in Akbar's farm.
He said establishing raceways/channels in a big pond and maintaining continuous water flow in those raceways is the main principle of IPRS. Outer area of the raceways is also facilitated by continuous circular water flow.
Simultaneously, a mechanized feeding system and removal of all waste materials are also ensured.
Sufficient dissolved oxygen supply, continuous water exchange in the raceway and regular removal of pollutants make the system similar to a natural water stream.
Amid these special arrangements, fishes feel convenient, swim freely as they are in their natural home and they can be cultivated at super high density.
"Export-quality fishes are being produced," Dr Ehsan said, adding IPRS is a visually attractive and most scientifically advanced aquaculture practice for farmable carps and catfishes.
In the modern system, optimal water chemistry, particularly sufficient dissolved oxygen, is ensured by maintaining interrupted water flow and waste disposal management.
It eventually allows a suitable environment for super high density fish stocking. Fishes are stocked in the channels or raceways installed in the pond, he added.
He viewed that adverse impact of climate change and land and water resources scarcity have become the crucial challenges in the field of fish farming in the region at present and IPRS can be the best ways of facing both the challenges smartly.
Recent introduction of the advanced technology can be considered as a golden milestone in aquaculture progress and mechanization in Bangladesh and it can play a frontline role in global freshwater aquaculture in near future.
Divisional Deputy Director of the Department of Fisheries Tofaz Uddin told BSS that successful promotion of IPRS can be the effective means of limiting frequent digging of ponds on cultivable lands. There is no alternative to using technology in the farming sector.
If the farm is built with IPRS technology, more fish can be found in less space. It will not be necessary to dig thousands of ponds by destroying croplands.    -BSS

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