Assessment of Supply and Marketing of Fresh Water Giant Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) from Khulna district, Bangladesh

Abstract

The fresh water prawn, Macrobrachillm rosenbergii(De Man, 1879) is commercially cultured in Khluna district of Bangladesh. Thousands of farmers in this region have converted their paddy fields to prawn farms (ghers)to accommodate a profitable prawn culture practice. Prawn farming become popular in this area in 1990 however, small scale prawn farming was started in Dumuria upazila back in 1984. Khulna region is godly blessed by nature interacting of brackish and fresh water environment Availability of fry, inputs, different types of water bodies, climatic condition, market condition and marketing facilities encouraged the prawn farming. Different types of culture system adopted in Khulna district to accelerate the production and utilyse the farming land. Farming area increased in 15842 ha in 2003-04 where it was 11317 ha in 1999-2000 and the production increased in 8431 MT in 2003-04 where it was 2302 MT in 1999-2000 in Khulna district. The unit production varies from upazila to upazila. The unit production of Dum uri a (0.59 to/ha), Digholia (0.89 to/ha), Dacope (0.79 to/ha), Terokhada (0.95 to/ha) and Rupsha (0.62 ton/ha) is comparatively higher than other area of Khulna. The manpower involvement in prawn farming tremendously increased in 38485 in 2003-04 where it was 31075 in 2002-02. About 921 depot and 2871 persons are involved in prawn trading in 62 locality of Khulna district. Farmers directly sell their prawns to their local markets round the year but the peak period is November to February. The prawns supply system from farmers to the international markets always pass through a number of chain and group of traders: foria (field workers), prawn traders, agents and processing plants. The price of prawn differs with grade and month. The prawns demand high price in peak seasons and comparatively low price in off seasons by grade. The average local price of prawn 1050-1145, 750-820, 625-665, 350-410, 220-265 and 120-185 BDT for grade-5 (200gm), grade-If (100gm), grade-20 (50gm), grade-30 (33.33gm), grade-50 (20gm) and grade-60 (16.66gm) respectively. The prawn is a highly valued product in the international markets. The average price of prawns in international markets varies between 4.0 and 10 per pound depending on grade. The contribution of fresh water prawn to frozen shrimps export is 43.82% (13643.03 ton) of landing and 42.82% (702.91 crate BDT) of export earnings in 2003-04 where it was 31.30% (6975.86 ton) of landing and 25.33% (338.51 crore BDT) of export earnings in 1999-2000. The present study has confined to identify and assess the level of production and marketing of fresh water giant prawn in Khulna district of Bangladesh.