Improved Extensive Shrimp Farming Uplifted Yield of Coastal Ghers in Southwest Bangladesh

Abstract

Shrimp is known as the white gold of Bangladesh because it is the second highest foreign currency earning source and 97% of the produced shrimp being exported. The present study is the report on the assessment of culture status of extensive shrimp ghers and intervention for increasing production of black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) in traditional gher system. The study was conducted at three different ghers in the south-west coastal region of Khulna district where multiple stocking (six successive stocking) and multiple harvesting was practiced during new-moon and full-moon period. Very lower production were recorded in extensive ghers 364.61 kg/ha, 380.31 kg/ha and 278.4 kg/ha in gher-1, gher-2 and gher-3 respectively in 2014. Hence, some little interventions like increasing gher depth, liming and use of PCR tested post larvae (PL) were taken to uplift the production. Interestingly, after 180 days of rearing, the average weight of shrimp was increased and the recorded production was 497.52 kg/ha, 435.44 kg/ha and 480.99 kg/ha in gher-1, gher-2 and gher-3 respectively in 2015 which increased alike in 2016 (680 kg/ha, 512 kg/ha and 466 kg/ha respectively). A strong correlation were found between temperature and production (R2 = 0.7055) and moderate correlation were found between production and depth (R2 = 0.456) that ultimately plays significant role on average production of shrimp. So, our research findings suggests that, the production of shrimp (P. monodon) can be increased significantly by improving the management practices in extensive shrimp ghers