Speakers at a roundtable have laid emphasis on ensuring easy and timely access to credit for the marginal fish farmers to boost aquaculture in Bangladesh. If the farmers are trained well and other prevailing issues are fixed, the sector will emerge as a major source of foreign currency.
The discussion, titled “Challenges of increasing investment in fisheries and potentials”, was jointly organised by Prothom Alo and Feed the Future Bangladesh Aquaculture and Nutrition Activity of WorldFish, and supported by USAID. Dignitaries from concerned government and non-government entities took part in the session.
Sainar Alam, director of Fisheries Training Academy under the Department of Fisheries; Manjurul Karim, chief of party at Bangladesh Aquaculture and Nutrition Activity of World Fish; Maksuda Akter Rosy, general manager of Sonali Bank; Ali Hossain Prodhania, former managing director of Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB); Rumana Akhter Tuli, first assistant senior vice president of Bank Asia’s agent banking division; Mosharref Hossain, professor of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM); MA Hakim, professor at economics department of Southeast University; and Reaz Ahmed, executive editor of Dhaka Tribune; among others were the discussants.
They shed light on different setbacks that have long been prevailing in the country’s fisheries sector - both marine and inland fish farming – and recommended ways to get rid of these.
Absence of institutional lenders, high dependency on local lenders, lack of financial literacy, and poor farming skill have been identified as key barriers at the farmers’ end. On the flip side, insufficient loans, complex disbursement process, limited grace period, and reluctance to invest in aquaculture have been described as main challenges at the lenders’ end.
In his opening speech, Prothom Alo associate editor Abdul Quayum briefed the participants about the problems and potentials of the aquaculture sector in Bangladesh. He placed importance on training the farmers, arranging affordable loan facilities for them and bringing them under the universal insurance scheme.
World Fish’s senior market system analyst Md Imtiaz Haque presented keynote. He said every person of Bangladesh consumes around 23 kg fish every year and 12 per cent of the population is directly or indirectly involved with the fish industry. Fish is the third highest export item and the sector contributes 3.52 per cent of the GDP. Prices of fish feed has increased around 50 per cent recently. More investment is needed in this sector.
Addressing the session, Sainar Alam said Bangladesh witnessed remarkable progress in commercial fish farming, but the marginal farmers are being overlooked.
He noted that currently 4.5 million metric tons of fish are being produced in roughly 400,000 hectares of water bodies every year, where the aquaculture produces around 2.5 million metric tons and most of the aqua fishes come from the commercial farms.
He stressed encouraging the marginal farmers in aquaculture and making necessary arrangements for them, including easy loan facility, seed, and feed. Thus the sector may emerge as a prominent source of foreign currency income.
The private entrepreneurs especially need to come forward and work in collaboration with the government agencies in this regard. The lenders should also gear up post-loan disbursement monitoring to ensure balanced diet as well as food security as part of their social responsibilities, Sainar added.
Noting that the commercial fish farmers are moving forward, Manjurul Karim said now is the time to pay attention to the small farmers. A certain policy should be formulated after assessing the actual condition of marginal level.
He also underscored the need for setting up a central information center and disseminating knowledge of fish farming among the small and commercial entrepreneurs. Besides, the government and private lenders should beef up post-loan disbursement facilities.
Sonali Bank GM Maksuda Akter Rosy noted that the young generation is now highly interested in entrepreneurship. Aquaculture may be a good choice for them as the government banks extend loan facilities against such initiatives. However, she laid emphasis on promoting the aquaculture sector through public-private partnership and strengthening post-loan monitoring.
Former BKB MD Ali Hossain Prodhania put emphasis on engaging women in aquaculture and here he pointed out the existing law of inheritance as the prime setback for availing loan, instead of multi-party ownership of collateral.
He also stressed on assessing the actual credit demand of farmers and reviewing the current agriculture and rural credit policy in the light of ground scenario. Besides, technological innovations and engagement of fintech firms may cut the sector's operation cost and be a game changer.
The key principles of private banks are not aquaculture-friendly while the loans provided by the government banks are inadequate compared to the demand. Other than this, the informal lenders take high interest from the farmers.
Against such a backdrop, MA Hakim suggested that the government and non-government lenders should introduce affordable products especially for the aquaculture sector. A minimum ceiling of loan disbursement to fish farmers should be set for the commercial banks and two specialized agriculture banks – Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB).
Besides, the non-bank financial institutions, including the Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), may be used for promoting the aquaculture, he added.
Dhaka Tribune's executive editor Reaz Ahmed emphasised public-private partnership to untap the potentials of aquaculture. The government in consultation with other stakeholders should introduce a special loan scheme for fisheries, he said.
Rumana Akhter Tuli told the programme that the Bank Asia reaches the marginal farmers through its micro merchants and provides loans to them on a limited scale. It disburses a certain portion of its total disbursal to the marginal farmers.
The farmers now avail demand loans for six months at an 8 per cent interest rate. Some barriers are still there as they face problems in distributing loans against collateral of multiple ownership, she said, adding that her bank is also working on forward market linkage.
BIBM professor Mosharref Hossain said fish-farming under the cluster system might be a significant solution to the prevailing difficulties. Besides, the government should introduce aquaculture processing zones, like the prevailing export processing zones, to groom up the sector.
The banks should lend money as per business characteristics. Also, a special finance scheme should be introduced for the aquaculture sector on the basis of digital technologies. The private sector lenders may share their experience in this regard, he said.
Apart from that, KM Ayreen Aziz, head of strategic alliance at Nagad; Imtiaj Haque, senior market system specialist at WorldFish; Mazed Hossain Mahin, senior market system specialist at WorldFish and Shushilan's assistant director Shahina Parvin were present on the occasion.
The roundtable was moderated by Prothom Alo assistant editor Firoz Choudhury