Afil Aqua Fish Ltd. hosted a signing ceremony with potential farmers of the In-Pond Raceway System (IPRS) on February 20, 2022, with support from the Feed the Future Bangladesh Aquaculture and Nutrition Activity (Aquaculture Activity).
Afil Aqua Fish Ltd. and four potential IPRS farmers signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the Afil Group’s Chanchra, Jashore conference room. The goal of the potential farmers’ agreement was to obtain IPRS machinery and consultancy services from Afil Aqua Fish Ltd. at a reasonable cost.
Afil Aqua Fish Ltd. introduced In-Pond Raceway System (IPRS) for the first time ever in southern Bangladesh in the year 2021 with financial assistance from USAID and technical support from WorldFish Bangladesh. This IPRS in total pond area of 2.23 hectares of which 880 m3 is used for four production cells, each 220m3. IPRS is a proven intensive aquaculture technology, which can produce a 7 to 10 times higher quantity of fish compared to the existing cultural practices. It is an efficient technology to produce a huge quantity of quality fish in less water.
As part of the joint initiative of the Aquaculture Activity and Afil Aqua Fish Ltd. a total of 105 advanced farmers, university Professors and students received hands-on training through visiting the IPRS site of Afil Aqua Fish Ltd. After attending the training courses, six advanced farmers have already taken the initiative to establish IPRS on their own facilities. With the expansion and widespread adoption of IPRS technology would enable farmers to produce more fish from their existing farms.
“Establishing IPRS in Bangladesh would help produce more quality fish in less water area with higher profitability. We are very grateful to the Aquaculture Activity, implemented by WorldFish for extending their support in establishing the first IPRS in south-western Bangladesh”, says- Mr SK Afil Uddin, Member of Parliament (Jashore-1) and Managing Director of Afil Group. He assures that Afil Aqua Fish Ltd. would help interested fish farmers by providing technical services related to the acquisition and installation of equipment in their IPRS ponds.
Among other guests and research students, Mohammad Hasnal Alam, Market Systems Specialist and Md. Monirujjaman, Programme Officer, was present from WorldFish Bangladesh.
