One can see the Garo hills, green horizon, vast croplands and ponds after ponds from Balia village in Mymensingh’s Phulpur upazila. Once paddy and jute were the main staple crops of this region, but in the last three decades it has flourished in fish farming. Fish production is increasing here even more as new entrepreneurs continue joining the business.

The Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) has conserved and improved 37 domesticated varieties of freshwater fish over the past 30 years, bringing hopes that endangered breeds can be preserved to satisfy both local and global demand.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today (July 24, 2022) urged the youths to set up export-oriented fish processing industries to help boost the country's foreign exchange earnings.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stresses the importance of maintaining the international standard of fish and fish products for export as riverine Bangladesh can grab the first position in the world in producing fish from inland water bodies.

The country's fish production has almost doubled in just over a decade as fish farming becomes even more popular. According to data from the Department of Fisheries, farmed fish production was 2 million tonnes in 2013-14 fiscal year. This was only 0.8 million tonnes in 2001-02.