Bangladesh has attained self-sufficiency in fish production as the country’s per capita fish consumption has increased to 62.58 grams per day against the demand of 60 grams.
State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Md Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru came up with the statement on Saturday while addressing a function at Kazi Najrul Islam Auditorium in Rajshahi University (RU) marking the 4th Livestock Award, seminar and Livestock and Poultry Fair-2019 in Rajshahi, reports BSS quoting a press release.
“Bangladesh has secured the third position in producing fish in inland water-bodies while it is the fifth in aquaculture production. The per capita fish consumption has increased to 62.58 grams per day, exceeding the daily requirement of 60 grams,” the state minister said.
Noting that Bangladesh is now on the way to achieve self-sufficiency in milk and egg production, Khasru said the availability of milk has increased by four times in the last 10 years with the current per capita consumption of 165 milliliters while availability of egg has increased to 104 per person from 40 during the period.
The deficiency of protein and nutritious foods is declining significantly due to the government’s time-worthy initiative, he said, adding Fisheries and Livestock Ministry with the assistance of the World Bank has taken the largest project titled ‘Livestock and Dairy Development Project (LDDP)’ to bring the deficiency to ‘zero’ level.
RU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor M Abdus Subhan, Khulna Agricultural University VC Professor Md Shahidur Rahman Khan, Livestock Department Director General Dr Abdul Jabbar Shikder and Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) Director General Dr Nathu Ram Sarker addressed the function, among others.
Later, the state minister distributed 13 awards in four categories in the function.