Floating Cage Fish Culture: Is it worth the potential risks?

Abstract
The culture of fish in cages is a promising aquaculture technology that has
already proven itself in many Asian countries. It is now being replicated
successfully in a small scale by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation to help the
people living on and under the poverty line in Sunamganj district.

Promises and Problems of Sunamganj

Sunamganj is one of the poorest districts of Bangladesh. Located in the north
eastern part of the country within the Sylhet Division, it is bounded by the
Sylhet District from the east, Habiganj District from the south and Netrokona
District to the west. The Surma River and Kushiyara River run through the
district whilst Ratna River crisscrosses the district and beyond. The River
Da'uka or Danuka also run through this district.1

Sunamganj is also a land of scenic beauty and natural resources that is

surrounded by numerous canals, hills and haors. A haor is a wetland
ecosystem most commonly found in the north eastern part of Bangladesh
which usually holds water for about half of the year, filled in from continuous
rainfall during the monsoon season, and remains dry for the other half of the
year.

Most people living in the north eastern part of Bangladesh have settled down
near this haor based flood plain area. They have to sustain their lives by
struggling frequently with different natural calamities like heavy rainfall,
early flash floods, hailstorm and devastating flood during monsoon season.
Hence, poverty is basically the parts and parcel of their livelihood and
sources of substantial income are quite scarce. However, people living in

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunamganj_District
Bangladeshi haor areas thrive under the blessings of nature as such naturally
formed water bodies and their surrounding lands are usually rich in different
natural resources. Consequently, the people of Sunamganj can sustain their
livelihoods on three distinct occupational options: 1) Cultivating rice during
dry season; 2) Fishing in rainy season and 3) Collecting sand, stone and coals
from the foot of hills. Among these, fishing is the key occupation that is most
frequently pursued by the people of Sunamganj and is intimately associated
with almost all of their livelihoods.

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in Sunamganj

To uplift the socio economic condition of this haor based zillas eight
constituent upazillas and also to improve the livelihoods of people living on
and under the poverty line in such areas, a Swiss Foundation Development
and International Cooperation, Intercooperation (IC), is working tirelessly.
This international private donor organization is already working in 22
countries around the globe including Bangladesh and is making successful
contribution to poverty alleviation over the last 2 decades.

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation is a development organization anchored in

Switzerland. It came into existence on 1 July 2011 through the merger of two
organizations: Helvetas (founded in 1955) and Intercooperation (founded in
1982). As a politically and denominationally neutral association, HELVETAS
Swiss Intercooperation is supported by around 100,000 members and
sponsors, as well as 12 regional groups of volunteers. The main focus of
HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperations work is on international projects. This
organization is committed to improving the living conditions of
disadvantaged people in rural parts of Africa, Asia, South and Central
America and Eastern Europe.2

2 http://www.helvetas.org/about_us/
Intercooperation is working in Bangladesh since 2001. However, this
organization has officially initiated their work in Sunamganj in 2005. In
collaboration with different government organization and local government
bodies, Intercooperation has taken extensive development initiatives for
organizing the lives of disadvantaged people living in haor areas through
employment and income generating activities. Its key initiatives include crop
diversification, market and market system development, strengthening
disaster risk reduction capacity, enhancing local good governance and
service provision, and ultimately ensuring social empowerment of the poor
and extreme poor living in these haor areas.

As a part of this process, Intercooperation is working on enhancing pond fish

culture, beef fattening, fish hatchery, fish nursery development, along with
promoting feasible technologies for Bangladeshi haor areas like floating cage
fish culture, rice fish culture, pen fish culture and fish fry production, which
are all contributing to the development of livelihoods of haor people.

The Inaccessible Water

Nowadays, it is becoming extremely difficult for the poor people of these
areas to maintain a considerable income through fishing in haor areas. The
improper fish management in haor, influence of water- lords and leasing of
water bodies by the government are further worsening this condition.
Moreover, these povertystriken people neither have access to the water for
fishing in haor nor do they own any ponds. Whereas, there are about 1400
haors and 25 rivers in Sunamganj spread out like nets and most of these
rivers hold water all-round the year. Keeping this huge natural opportunity in
mind, Intercooperation took initiatives in 2010 to establish floating cage fish
culture in river water to enable the poor and extreme poor of Sunamganj
attain a constant source of income all throughout the year.

The Beginning of a Promising Future

Given all the constraints, the Leaf and Shakti projects of Intercooperation
facilitated the setup of floating cage fish culture in river Dauka including
fisherman from two villages- Tyla and Shamnagar, under south Sunamganj
upazilla of Sunamganj district. With the help of this project, 8 beneficiaries of
Shotota and Ekota cluster of these villages visited the floating cage fish
culture project in Dakatia River at Chandpur and also participated in an all-
day training session facilitated by the Department of Fisheries.

After completion of initial training, the selected beneficiaries came back to

an elaborate training session organize for more male and female members of
Ekota cluster of Tyla village. Through this participatory training session, the
villagers managed to learn everything practically and master all the
technical know-hows of floating cage fish culture. After completion of
required training, all 100 male and female members of Ekota cluster
started floating cage fish culture in their own village. First, they planned to
make 10 cages, so they collected bamboo from their own village, plastic
drum from Bhairab bazaar and net from Chandpur, whichever source seemed
cost effective.

Meanwhile, nursery owners of Sunamganj brought mono-sex Tilapia fish fries

from Ambor Fisheries of Lakshmipur district and transported them to
Sunamganj in oxygenated polybags. After nursing these fries for 45- 60 days
at nursery pond, fingerlings of an average size of 2.5- 3 inch were taken to
the floating cages for fish culture.

In light of the training, members of Ekota culture developed a total of 10

cages, each of which is 20ft by 10ft by 7ft in dimension. After releasing mono
sex tilapia fingerlings, it took about 120 days for them to become marketable
size. Within this time, each of these Tilapia fish weighed about 200-250
grams. All through from the releasing of the fingerlings to the marketing of
fish, these farmers constant received suggestions and encouragement from
local elites, elected representatives, Fisheries department and
Intercooperation.

Cost- Benefit Analysis

Two types of costs are associated with floating cage fish culture: a fixed cost
and a variable cost. For the development of each cage, on average the
following items are required:
Cost/
Cost
Items Quantity Purpose cage
Type
(BDT)
Bamboos 10 pieces Cage construction 1000
Plastic Drum 2 Cage construction 3000
Nylon Rope 2 kg Cage construction 520
Normal Net 7.5 kg Cage construction 2825
Prevents feed from
Russell Net 3 kg 380
floating away
Surface Prevents fingerlings
Dhakka Net area of from jumping outside 100
each cage the cage
3 pieces Fixed
Anchors for 10 Anchoring the cage 300 Cost
cages
Monosex Tilapia is quick growing, disease resistant and quite

Pull down the nets to

Bricks 6 pieces 30
keep their shape
Prevent stealing
Guard Shed 1 (Total cost is 700- 124
1000)
Cage making
1 720
Charge
Total Fixed Cost (per cage) 9000
Key input for
Fingerlings 1000 2500
production
125 kg in Key input for
Feed for fish 3600
120 days production Variabl
Depreciation Cost 120 days 500
e Cost
Prevent stealing (BDT
Guard 120 days 1400
3500 per month)
Other Cost 120 days 400
Total Variable Cost (per cage) 8400
 elicious. Last year we bought 29,000 ponas and grew them in cages with a total cost of BDT 33,000 and we sold them at around BDT 75,000. We
Excluding fixed cost, approximate total production cost
of one round (120 days) of mono-sex tilapia= BDT
12,000
Each of these cages last for approximately 6
years and they would be used 3 times each year.
Therefore, the depreciation cost at each round of
cultivation stands at BDT 500.
Total amount of tilapia produced per cage= 200 kg
Price of tilapia per kg = BDT 100
Total revenue from each cage = BDT 20,000.

Hence,
Approximate profit per cage = BDT 20, 000- BDT
12,000= BDT 8,000

Therefore,
Total profit from 10 cages= BDT 8,000*10=
BDT 8,000

Excluding all fixed cost, the farmers have to spend

approximately BDT 5000 per season behind 10
cages, while the other variable cost per cage were
around BDT 10,500. Hence, once the initial set up is
completed, the farmer could reap substantial
profit by spending only BDT 11,000 per cage per round
of production. On the other hand, with 200kg of fish
produced per cage, the farmers can harvest a total
 made an approximate profit of BDT 42000.- Md. Akbar, a local fisherman.
of 5 mon fish per round. They could sell each mon of fish at BDT 4050,
and hence makes a total revenue of BDT20, 250.3

Within these 120 days of culture, grading of fish is done at every 15 days
interval and fish are separated into different cages according to their grades
(large, medium and small) to minimize competition for feed.

In this way, these poor fish farmers of Shamnagar and Tyla could cultivate
mono-sex tilapia 3 times a year in floating cage fish culture and ensure a
constant source of income for them.4

A Profitable Value Chain

Fish traders, locally known as paikers, come from distant places and buy fish
from the farmers at wholesale rate at their doorsteps. The fish farmers of
Sunamganj are now being benefitted through active participation in the
following value chain:

3 http://ffpapi.com/movies/QNdgEohBaxQ-floating-cage-fish-culture-helvetas-swiss-
intercooperation-english-subtitle-wmv

4 http://assets.helvetas.org/downloads/helvetas_bangladesh_programme_strateare
gy_dec2014.pdf
In this way, organized groups in haor regions brought together by
Intercooperation are now being benefitted from the floating cage fish culture,
which is now disseminating to adjacent areas and encouraging many local
farmers and businessman to get involved.

Chandpur cage fish-farming suffers downturn

Chandpur is a district in east-central Bangladesh. It is located at the mouth
of the Meghna River and is a part of the Chittagong Division with an area of
1704.06 sq. km. The vast water-body and environmental condition of these
districts are very suitable for fish production. For this reason during 2002
about 40 cages (6mx3mx1.5m) were set in the Dakatia river in Chandpur
 and 3.7 million selective breeding high quality seeds of GIFT were distributed
5
among the farmers under Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI).

Though the project was initially quite successful, recently, it has been
observed that almost two thousand fish cages used in mono-sex tilapia
farming was not being put into use in the last seven months in Chandpur due
to poor water quality resulting in fish diseases and high feeding costs.

Farmers, who once found the new fishing method easy, low-cost and
profitable, are left with limited options to choose from as the countrys
overall aquaculture industry suffers a downturn. According to the department
of fisheries, the number of fish cages rose to around 7,500 in a couple of
years. But in the last seven months, outbreak of fish diseases and rising fish
food prices put many farmers in a tight spot.

Many have already been opted out of the business, many reverted to their
conventional method of farming, and many are hoping that they wont have

ses that killed many tilapias and the rising feeding costs. I had no options left but to close my busin

to face similar fates. It is estimated that the number of cages closed in the
process would be around two thousand.

5 http://dspace.bau.edu.bd/jspui/bitstream/1/578/1/Roll%20no%2012%20Fish
%20Aqua%20JD%2002%20M.pdf
Abu Hanif, a local businessman, said many fishes died last year from various
diseases and parasites. But I am still in the business. Surviving another loss
like last years would be difficult. But lets see what happens.

Another businessman admitted that 450 kilograms of his fishes died last year
from water pollution and resulting diseases. This system (mono-sex tilapia
farming) has no patronage of any sort. Though the government initially lent
us its support to instigate farming, it stopped doing that after a short while.
Without any assistance, how can a new sector like this develop? he said.

District fisheries official Ratan Datta said many people are coming to the
profession without any prior or adequate knowledge of fish farming. As a
result, they suffer sizeable losses and have to close business. There were
7500 cages in the Dakatia River. About 1000-1500 of them have fallen into
disuse or were sold off. Many farmers are closing their fishing ventures in
6
anticipation of losses.

Cage Fish Culture- A sustainable solution?

Cage fish culture also has some distinct but general disadvantages that
might harm profitability in the long run. These include:
1. Low Dissolved Oxygen Syndrome (LODOS) - Growing in cages, fish
becomes extremely susceptible to environmental changes. Low
Dissolved Oxygen Syndrome may occur within a cage and not affect
the fish free in the pond, however, fish in cages are crowded and
confined, so their death may escalate quickly. Hence, aeration may be
more necessary for a cage system than it would be if the fish were
loose in the pond. However, this is a very expensive solution.

6 http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2013/jun/20/chandpur-cage-fish-farming-suffers-
downturn
 2. The incidence of disease can be high and diseases may spread rapidly-
In a cage, diseases must be identified and treated rapidly. Otherwise,
given the confinement of a large number of fish in limited space, it
would very quickly and can destroy the entire population.

3. Vandalism or poaching is a potential threat to maximizing productivity-

Vandalism is a problem which has to be anticipated and precautions
must be taken. Regular security must be maintained as it is quite easy
for others to fish within a densely populated cage.

4. Environmental Hazard (Eutrophication) - More problems may show up

in any pond as it ages (a process called eutrophication). In most
aquaculture ponds engaged in cage farming, nutrient accumulation is a
common scenario. This results in excessive algal blooms and
macrophytic growth which can in turn lead to dissolved oxygen
depletions at night or on heavily overcast days. Surface scums, such as
those caused by blue-green algae, can shade out the rest of the algal
population and cause further dissolved oxygen depletions, hence
completely deteriorating the pond environment and hamper successful
7
fishing.

Mohimuddins Dilemma
Mohimuddin is a local businessman in Sunamganj who is quite intrigued by
the recent project undertaken by Intercooperation and the benefits
harnessed by the local fishermen from floating cage fish culture. He already
owns 2 ponds and have considerable access to a local haor in Sunamganj
and is considering whether he should replicate this floating cage farming
culture in a larger scale by hiring some of the farmers from Ekota project
and using their expertise to successfully develop a venture on cage fish

7 http://appliedecology.cals.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/165.pdf
farming of Tilapia. The profit margin seemed to be quite promising and since
he is considering a wide scale adoption of this technique, Mohimuddin
believes he can further minimize cost by attaining economies of scale using
his already available access to good water bodies and his association with
the local hatcheries. However, recently some events about the hazards
involved with floating cage fish farming has come to his attention. His
brother, Nasiruddin has forwarded him a recent news reported on the cage
fish culture conducted in Chandpur district and its declining potential.
Mohimuddin in well aware that the Chandpur case is a much more mature
project than the one currently being conducted in Sunamganj and has
followed almost similar technology and consequently he fears whether the
recent hype of floating cage fish farming in Sunamganj awaits a similar
future. He obviously cannot overlook its current success, but would it sustain
profitably in the long run?