In Asia region, Bangladesh is one of the leading countries for aquaculture development to support human nutrition, income generation of rural fish farmers and country’s economic growth. Bangladesh is one of the seven countries belonging to Asia-Pacific region among the top 10 global aquaculture producers. The country was ranked in the 5th position being a producer of 2.8 percent of the total global aquaculture production , while India, Indonesia and Vietnam accounted for 7.1 percent, 6.2 percent and 4.5 percent production and were ranked second, third and fourth positions respectively (FAO, 2018). Aquaculture has been attributed as one of the dominant sub-sectors, which alone contributing 56.24 percent to total fish production (2017-18) of the country (DoF , 2018). For last 10 years, average growth performance of fisheries sector is 5.26 percent . Aquaculture sub-sector shows a sturdy and consistent growth, average growth rate is almost 10 percent during the same time frame. Aquaculture alone contributes over 2.81 percent to the GDP in Bangladesh, which is higher than any other counties of Asia Pacific region except the Vietnam (FAO, 2018). Inland freshwater and partly marine aquaculture are presently showing major impact on production, protein supply, economic development and livelihood aspects of millions of value chain actors of the country. D ue to innovation of novel aquaculture technologies, rapid advances of aquaculture have been possible, by the national research institutions (viz. BFRI) along with dissemination of such technologies by DoF and NGOs to the end users (ie . Farmers) all over Bangladesh . A total of five research projects are being supported and implement in the Areas of Inquiry (AI)
by Feed the Future Innovation Lab for FIL (FIL), Mississippi State University, USA in Bangladesh. Achievement of such projects has been presented and self-assessed in FIL Bangladesh Sector meeting held during 24 – 28 July, 2022. It is expected that successful implementation of these research projects will make a great impact at the end of the project period (2023), while a number of evolved aquaculture and fisheries technologies will be evolved, transferred and used for maximizing human nutrition and poverty alleviation of a large number of vulnerable people in Bangladesh. In this paper, an attempt has been made to address the overall review of advances of aquaculture sub-sector of the country along with Bangladesh Government priorities indicated at the 8th Five Year Plan, Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 and Blue Economy Development in Bangladesh. Overall aquaculture prospects , future challenges along with status and impact of implementation of five FIL funded projects are also highlighted.
Key words: Aquaculture Advancement , Bangladesh, Prospects, Future Challenges, FIL Funded Projects Impact