Challenges of Community based Fish Culture Program in Bangladesh: Case Study on Floodplain Beel Mail in Rajshahi

Bangladesh is one of the largest and richest floodplain lands in the world. There are 3 million hectares of medium and deep flooded areas. In the dry season these land are used for rice production, but these lands remain unutilized or underutilized for a long period because of flooding. Recently, rice and fish culture is practiced in dry and flooding season under community based fisheries management (CBFM) in Kalmina Beel, Fulbaria, Mymensingh and Angrar Beel, Pirganj, Rangpur areas as case studies. Assessment of the challenges and problems of these beels will help to implement it in other floodplain areas of Bangladesh that will help utilize land and waterbodies with a good source of food, employment and better income source for poor people. To understand the challenges of implementation of CBFM, this study was conducted on Beel Mail at Rajshahi in Bangladesh as a case study. This study conducted focus group discussion among the CBFM stakeholders. It was revealed that lack of skills, education, technological knowledge, and conflict among the stakeholders are the main internal constraints. Lack of coordination among the government agencies, improper facilities for marketing, infrastructure, and financial services, and environmental externalities were identified as major external constraints of successful implementation of CBFM. Some policy recommendations for the successful implementation of the CBFM have been formulated

Challenge of community based fish culture Program in Bangladesh: Case study on floodplain Beel mail in Rajshah

Bangladesh is one of the largest and richest floodplain lands in the world. There are 3 million hectares of medium and deep flooded areas. In the dry season these land are used for rice production, but these lands remain unutilized or underutilized for a long period because of flooding. Recently, rice and fish culture is practiced in dry and flooding season under community based fisheries management (CBFM) in Kalmina Beel, Fulbaria, Mymensingh and Angrar Beel, Pirganj, Rangpur areas as case studies. Assessment of the challenges and problems of these beels will help to implement it in other floodplain areas of Bangladesh that will help utilize land and waterbodies with a good source of food, employment and better income source for poor people. To understand the challenges of implementation of CBFM, this study was conducted on Beel Mail at Rajshahi in Bangladesh as a case study. This study conducted focus group discussion among the CBFM stakeholders. It was revealed that lack of skills, education, technological knowledge, and conflict among the stakeholders are the main internal constraints. Lack of coordination among the government agencies, improper facilities for marketing, infrastructure, and financial services, and environmental externalities were identified as major external constraints of successful implementation of CBFM. Some policy recommendations for the successful implementation of the CBFM have been formulate

Water productivity for living aquatic resources in floodplains of Northwestern Bangladesh

Objective: This objective of this study is to measure the productivity of water on the floodplain land in terms of fisheries and living aquatic resources based on two floodplain beels in Bangladesh. Methods: Among two beels, beel Mail is practicing community based fish culture management, and beel Chandpur is open access and improperly managed. The production and market price data of fish, snail, and aquatic plants were collected by direct observation based on 30 samples fishers in the year 2006-07. This study also collected production related water quality data, such as water temperature, pH and Dissolved Oxygen. Results: The water quality data are found within the normal range. Net aggregated water productivity values based on production costs was TK 8016.23 ha-1 and TK 3912.9 ha-1 and based on all cost TK 7160.97 ha-1 and TK 3741.13 ha-1 at beel Mail and beel Chandpur, respectively. The contribution of fish, snails and aquatic resources were 96.50%, 3.10%, and 0.40% of the gross aggregated water produced in beel Mail and 87.85%, 8.38%, and 3.77% in the beel Chandpur. The water productivity values in beel Mail is higher than the beel Chandpur due to the intervention of community based fish culture. Conclusion: The proper management and techniques of harvesting fish through appropriate number of fish fingerlings stocked, good quality of fish fingerlings, size of beel, good fencing and well defined embankment, etc. can help to improve the productivity of water in the beel areas

Investigation of Phytoplankton and Physico-chemical Parameters in Nursery, Growout and Broodstock Ponds

The study measures the relationship between physicochemical variables with the cell density of phytoplankton in different stages of pond – nursery ponds, grow out ponds and brood stock ponds. The study was conducted on nine fish ponds as three from each category of pond at Natore Government Fish Farm in Bangladesh, during the months of January to June in 2012. The observed physicochemical variables– water temperature, transparency, dissolved oxygen, pH, ammonia-nitrogen, total alkalinity and total hardness – were found within the standard ranges. Four groups of phytoplankton– Bacillariophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae and Euglenophyceae– werefound among the ponds where Euglenophyceae was recorded highest number almost in all ponds over the study period. Total abundance of different groups of phytoplankton was recorded as mean (±SD) cell density (cell/l) 62.77±2.16×104, 47.22±0.69×104, and 77.12±3.42×104 in nursery pond, grow out pond and brood stock pond, respectively. Overall phytoplankton was found better in brood stock pond than others. Total phytoplankton density has been exhibited significantly positive correlation with DO and inverse relation with water temperature, pH, ammonia-nitrogen and total alkalinity in case of nursery pond. In case of grow out pond, total phytoplankton density has been exhibited significantly positive correlation with temperature and transparency, and significantly negative correlation with others physicochemical characteristics. In case of brood stock pond, total phytoplankton density has no significant relationship with any physicochemical variables of water

Water Productivity for Boro Rice Production: Study on floodplain Beels in Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Context: Water productivity is considered as an important indicator of Agriculture productivity because of the scarcity of freshwater. More yield or output against same or less amount of water has become the global interest. Objectives: This study measures the productivity of water on the floodplain land in terms of Boro rice cultivation for two floodplain beels in Rajshahi Bangladesh. Materials & Methods: For this study, the production and market price data were collected by direct observation based on 30 samples in the year 2006-07. Results: This study found gross water productivity of rice yield as 0.47 kg m-3 in beel Mail and 0.43 kg m-3 in beel Chandpur. In monetary value, water productivity per cubic meter irrigation water were TK 5.65, TK 3.42 and TK 2.64 based on gross return, net return considering cash costs and net return considering full costs in beel Mail. In beel Chandpur these values were TK 5.19 m-3, TK 2.87 m-3 and TK 2.14 m-3, respectively. The usage of average irrigated water in the boro rice farms were estimated 10730.05 m-3 and 11236 m-3 with an average production of yield 4992.95 kg and 4783.20 kg in beel Mail and beel Chandpur. Statistical result shows that keeping irrigation water constant, a 1% increase of boro rice yield will increase water productivity at 0.916% in beel Mail and 0.972% in beel Chandpur. The water productivity in beel Mail was 4.65% higher than beel Chandpur due to the intervention of community based fish culture management. Conclusion: The findings of this study will help to govern and improve production by proper utilizing floodplain land

Municipal wastewater can result in a dramatic decline in freshwater fishes: a lesson from a developing country

Impacts of ineffective wastewater management on the biodiversity of receiving waters in developing countries are poorly documented. Using a before-after-control-impact methodology, we measured the effects of untreated wastewater release on the fish community in the Barnoi River, Bangladesh. In 2006, prior to untreated wastewater discharge, fish abundance, species richness and water quality were similar across sampling sites. In 2016, after 8 years of wastewater release to the downstream reach, fish abundance and species richness were reduced by >47% and >35% respectively at downstream sites compared to unaffected upstream sites and >51% and >41% lower respectively compared to the pre-wastewater discharge period. The wastewater impact was particularly severe during months of low discharge (October–December). Water transparency, dissolved oxygen and pH were lower (P < 0.001) at impacted downstream sites compared to upstream sites. Nineteen species (41.3% of all species we recorded) are threatened in Bangladesh and the abundance of these species, except one, decreased significantly (P < 0.05) at the impacted sites. We recommend improved wastewater management by applying primary treatment facilities and incorporating reedbed filtration as a mean of biological treatment, into the canals carrying wastewaters. The success of such measures should be tested with fish species that were most responsive to wastewater, using the indicator species concept

Municipal wastewater can result in a dramatic decline in freshwater fishes: a lesson from a developing country

Impacts of ineffective wastewater management on the biodiversity of receiving waters in developing countries are poorly documented. Using a before-after-control-impact methodology, we measured the effects of untreated wastewater release on the fish community in the Barnoi River, Bangladesh. In 2006, prior to untreated wastewater discharge, fish abundance, species richness and water quality were similar across sampling sites. In 2016, after 8 years of wastewater release to the downstream reach, fish abundance and species richness were reduced by >47% and >35% respectively at downstream sites compared to unaffected upstream sites and >51% and >41% lower respectively compared to the pre-wastewater discharge period. The wastewater impact was particularly severe during months of low discharge (October–December). Water transparency, dissolved oxygen and pH were lower (P < 0.001) at impacted downstream sites compared to upstream sites. Nineteen species (41.3% of all species we recorded) are threatened in Bangladesh and the abundance of these species, except one, decreased significantly (P < 0.05) at the impacted sites. We recommend improved wastewater management by applying primary treatment facilities and incorporating reedbed filtration as a mean of biological treatment, into the canals carrying wastewaters. The success of such measures should be tested with fish species that were most responsive to wastewater, using the indicator species concept

Physical and electrical properties of molybdenum thin films grown by DC magnetron sputtering for photovoltaic application

DC magnetron sputtering was utilized to grow thin layers of molybdenum (Mo) on top of soda lime glass substrates. Deposition power was varied for suitable characteristics of films grown at various DC powers, i.e. 100 W, 150 W and 200 W. Thin Mo film of approximately 580 nm thickness was successfully grown at DC power of 100 W at room temperature. Structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of Mo thin films were analyzed. XRD patterns revealed Mo films to be monocrystalline in nature and only one peak was observed corresponding to the (1 1 0)cub reflection plane at 2θ = 40.5°. Exceptionally dense microstructure was found for surface morphology observation by AFM and FESEM. Increasing deposition power resulted in coarser surface of the grown films. The minimum average surface roughness was found to be around 0.995 nm. Scotch tape adhesion test was performed to validate adhesion. Grown Mo films were found metallic in nature with electrical resistivity of 2.64 × 10−5 Ω-cm. Furthermore, it was found that by increasing deposition power, the electrical resistivity could further be reduced. © 201