Yesterday, December 19, 2024, at 10:00 am, the Mid-term Stakeholders Conference 2024 titled Climate friendly and climate resilient prawn farming in Bangladesh (Ecoprawn) was held at Journalist Liaquat Ali Auditorium of Khulna University.
The chief guest of the event was the Honorable Vice-Chancellor of Patuakhali University of Science and Technology, Professor Dr. Kazi Rafiqul Islam. The guest of honor at the event was the Honorable Vice-Chancellor of Khulna University, Professor Dr. Md. Rezaul Karim, and the special guest was Professor Dr. Md. Nazmul Ahsan, Vice-Chancellor, Khulna Agricultural University and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Patuakhali University of Science and Technology, Professor Dr. S. M. Hemayet Jahan. The event was presided over by Professor Badiuzzaman, Country Coordinator of the Ecopron Project. The conference was also attended by deans, chairmen, teachers and students of various faculties and departments of Khulna Agricultural University, Bangladesh Agricultural University, PSTU, and Khulna University, respected experts of the Department of Fisheries and fish farmers of Khulna area.
About 150 participants including 100 farmers and 50 teachers, researchers, experts and journalists were present in the event. All are gifted pads, pens, cards, t-shirts and eco-friendly jute bags on behalf of the project. 500.00 (Five Hundred Taka) cash has been given to the farmers as travel allowance.
Climate-friendly and climate-tolerant Prawn farming in Bangladesh is abbreviated as ECOPRAWN. It is a 5-year collaborative research project with PSTU, BAU and University of Copenhagen, Denmark, funded by DANIDA. The project is funding eight PhD students.
The research activity is broken down into four work packages, each with two PhD students cooperating with their supervisors and researchers in Bangladesh and Denmark. Work package 1 deals with analyzing GHG (CO2 and methane) emissions in prawn ponds, work package 2 deals with alleviating seawater-induced prawn diseases, work package 3 with techniques for measuring economic viability and efficiency, while work package 4 deals with options of implementing greenhouse gas emissions reduction pushed by governance of value chains.
The aim of this research project is to strengthen the research capacity of the scientific community in Bangladesh on shrimp farming and to advise the government on new policies to prepare the shrimp industry for climate change. In Bangladesh, shrimp is the second largest source of export earnings after ready-made garments (RMG). It is one of the major export commodities of Bangladesh and contributes about 80% of total agricultural exports. That is why it is called the “white gold” of Bangladesh. At one time, about 80% of domestic shrimp production was exported abroad, which has now reduced to 10%. The project also aims to identify the reasons for the decline in export earnings and find solutions to it.
The expected outcome of this project is the completion of PhD degrees by 8 students and publication of scientific research articles in international refereed journals by the researchers concerned. Creation of a large database of Ecopron containing various information and data will also be an outcome of this project, which can be used for other research in the future. The project will contribute to capacity building of faculty members and researchers of both PSTU and BAU. Several courses, trainings and seminars related to this topic have been organized with the funding of the project and more will be organized. As an activity of this project, Dr. Rijo Natalia will be staying at Patuakhali Science and Technology University for 3 weeks from 3 February to teach a PhD level course on Life Cycle Assessment.
Of course, the results of the study on GHG emissions, salinity intrusion, probiotic introduction, IMTA adaptation and shrimp farm economics will be able to contribute to the food and nutrition security and economic development of Bangladesh. The ‘Policy Notes’ of the Ecopron project will be considered as a very important recommendation in formulating future aquaculture policies in Bangladesh.
At the end of the program, farmers asked their various questions in an open discussion and these were answered by BAU’s Professor Dr. Mahfuzul Haque, Professor Dr. Lokman Ali and Professor Dr. Akhtaruzzaman Khan.
