ZAHID CHUGHTAI
Colombo (Sri Lanka): Fish & Shrimp farming has the potential to earn greater than US $2billions per 12 months supplied, a pro-export coverage is enacted, fish farmers are taught to implement Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and exempting duties and taxes at completely different phases of this sector. It can assist convey down the price of manufacturing for the Inland Aquaculture Farmers who at current are engaged over roughly greater than 250,000 acres of land throughout Pakistan. These may fetch good-looking international trade if incentivized by exempting gross sales tax on fish & shrimps feed, seed (infants) of fish & shrimps, exempt duties & taxes on every kind of import of fish & shrimp for brood shares and equipment for manufacturing Aquaculture feed or use in Aquaculture farming. Equally, these farmers ought to be supplied electrical energy at backed charges. Haider Ali Director of an agro-based firm noticed this whereas speaking to this scribe on the “AquaCon”, an occasion organized by the US Soya Bean Export Council (USSEC) lately in Colombo to advertise funding in technology-based scientific farming in Aquaculture. Aquaculture startups from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka pitched their tasks to the traders on the occasion. Haider regretted that Inland Aquaculture Farming couldn’t be a focus for the federal government as a result of for fish consumption we primarily relied on open water (sea, river and so on) catching which now a day is lowering regularly. The rationale for much less productiveness in open water as a consequence of the usage of small mesh-size nets for the final so a few years which have been dangerous to child fishes and didn’t allow them to develop finally leading to genocide and altering the ocean and river ecosystem too. For the previous few years, the Fisheries Growth Board (FDB) was engaged on bettering Inland Aquaculture Farming by conducting numerous improvement applications and making an attempt onerous to teach farmers. Nonetheless, nonetheless, the specified outcomes had not been achieved. To realize objectives and enhance per-acre manufacturing FDB together with Provincial Fisheries Division (PFD) needed to work onerous and switch the correct and sensible data to farmers in an environment friendly and cost-effective method. Although on the Provincial stage, there have been numerous fish hatcheries however not a single shrimp hatchery was accessible in Pakistan. To enhance Inland Aquaculture Farming in Pakistan, the Federal Authorities with the assist of all Provincial Governments ought to concentrate on growing the variety of hatcheries with a rise of manufacturing from 500-1000kg to 3000-4000kg per acre by educating fish farmers to extend the exports and meet native demand as properly. Bangladesh Inland Fish Pond Tradition achieved 2,405,415MT from 495,000 hectares (2017-18) whereas Pakistan isn’t any means close to to them. Pakistan’s Inland Fish Pond Tradition manufacturing shouldn’t be greater than roughly 200,000MT whereas Pakistan can enhance aquaculture in additional land space than Bangladesh utilizing these lands that are saline and never appropriate for agricultural functions. Presently, Bangladesh has 100 fish processing crops out of which 76 are accredited by the European Fee and exporting greater than 60-70% of its whole manufacturing (sea, river and inland tradition) to Europe, the USA and Japan whereas Pakistan has only a few processing crops wherein solely three processing crops are accredited from European Fee, Haider added. One other gray space of this sector was that every one fisheries departments each in Federal and Provincial governments didn’t have correct information on manufacturing which ought to be streamlined, he regretted. For the final 3-4 years some fish farmers have been making an attempt to enhance per acre manufacturing capability through the use of fish feed however sadly, this sector was once more ignored by the Federal Authorities within the supplementary funds of 2022 by abolishing the exemption of gross sales tax on fish feed which was exempted earlier than the mentioned supplementary funds whereas gross sales tax is exempted on poultry and cattle feed. Haider was of the view that above talked about facility not solely enhances the farmers’ capability to extend per acre manufacturing however might also entice international investments which finally end in a rise in GDP and create employment within the sector, he concluded.
