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About 2000 farmers in Mushiganj area near Khulna will be trained to produce organic shrimp without using harmful pesticides. Shushilan, a voluntary organization of Bangladesh, will import the training.
An agreement on this pilot project was signed between Swiss Import Promotion Programme (Sippo) and Shushilan at a city hotel on Wednesday evening.
Swiss ambassador in Bangladesh Dr. Dora Rapold, Deputy Country Director of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Corinne Huser, Project Manager of (Sippo) Adrian Bretscher and Director of Shishilan, Mustafa Naruzzaman were present at the contract signing ceremony.
With the help of the Department of Fisheries in Bangladesh and Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA) the site Mushigonji was primarily selected for shrimp farming as the area is almost from artificial fertiliser and pesticides and maintained its natural organic content of its soil.
Initially 500 farmers will be provided training and the project will cover 5,000 acres of land to produce organic shrimp.
The project is of 23 months duration and will last till 2007. The first certified shrimp is expected to be available at the end of 2006.
It is expected that if the project is implemented about 150 to 200 tons of shrimp will be produced per year.
These organic certified shrimps that have much demand in Swiss and European markets can be exported and a huge amount in foreign currency can be earned which likely to have a positive impact on our trade balance.
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