Abstract
Water and soil quality parameters play a vital role for sustainable shrimp and prawn production which together is the leading exportable seafood product in Bangladesh contributing to a significant amount of foreign currency earnings. However, this sector is often negatively criticized by the consumers of importing countries for farm (locally called gher in Bengali) environment. In this context, an investigation was carried out to assess water and soil quality parameters of shrimp and prawn farms in southwest Bangladesh. This study was conducted at Dumuria and Paickgacha Upazila of Khulna district during dry and wet season in 2012. The data were collected from 9 shrimp and prawn farms and they were categorized in three different groups (as treatments) including 3 prawn (T1), 3 shrimp & prawn (T2) and 3 shrimp farms (T3). Water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, alkalinity, salinity, total phosphorous and total hardness were measured using portable advanced HACH water quality test kit in both dry and wet season. Farm soil (sediment) quality parameters including pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus were measured in the laboratory in wet season. It was found that most of the water quality parameters were in suitable range in both seasons for prawn, shrimp & prawn and shrimp farming. However, the ammonia content was 0.009 to 0.45 ppm and 0.2 to 0.6 ppm in shrimp farm during dry and wet season, respectively which was higher than the other category of farms. The higher ammonia content in shrimp farm might be due to the decomposition of aquatic weeds, organic matter, uneaten feed etc. creating stress to shrimp. Different co-relationships found between the water quality parameters in all the farming systems in the both seasons. In terms of soil quality parameters such as pH, organic carbon and total nitrogen, there was no significant difference between the farm categories. However, available phosphorous content was significantly higher in shrimp & prawn farm. Phosphorous content was found negatively correlated with pH and organic carbon content of farm sediment (soil). From the present study, it could be argued that ammonia is the main problem for shrimp farms that may cause severe disease outbreak which need to be addressed from the view point of research and development towards sustainable seafood production in Bangladesh.J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 13(1): 153-160, June 2015
Highlights
Bangladesh is a vast delta having 1,47,570 square km area, of which coastal brackish water covers roughly 17%
About 50,333 MT of frozen shrimp and prawn was exported in the fiscal year 2012-2013 which was worth of about USD 422.03 (DoF, 2014)
The temperature was found higher in shrimp & prawn farm and shrimp farm during dry and wet season (Table 1 and 2)
Summary
Bangladesh is a vast delta having 1,47,570 square km area, of which coastal brackish water covers roughly 17%. The wider coastal tidal area of Bangladesh is considered favorable for shrimp farming and 0.276 million hectares of land are currently under brackish water shrimp cultivation (Kabir and Eva, 2014). Bangladesh earns millions of foreign currency annually exporting shrimp. Frozen seafood is the second largest export commodity which plays a dominant role in the economy of Bangladesh. The contribution of this sector was 4.37% and 2.01% for GDP and export earnings, respectively. About 50,333 MT of frozen shrimp and prawn was exported in the fiscal year 2012-2013 which was worth of about USD 422.03 (DoF, 2014)
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