Fish Farming in Nepal: Trend and Consumption Level

Rachana Budhathoki* and Bishnu Sapkota

Post Graduate Campus, Biratnagar, Nepal

*Corresponding Author: Rachana Budhathoki, Post Graduate Campus, Biratnagar, Nepal.

Received: July 19, 2018; Published: August 29, 2018

Citation: Rachana Budhathoki and Bishnu Sapkota. “Fish Farming in Nepal: Trend and Consumption Level". Acta Scientific Agriculture 2.9 (2018).

Abstract

  The abundant availability of water resource is boon to Nepal and different fresh water habitat makes the Nepal potential for different fisheries and aquaculture activities. In the last 15 years, there has been an increase of more than 23000 mt of fish production in Nepal compared to that of the base year 1999/00 with 37427 mt production in the year 2013/14. The terai, especially the eastern terai is the main region for fish production however cold water species culture is developing in hilly districts. Although the fish production activities exhibited a very positive growth, overall productivity had not been satisfactory in terms of marketing management and its institutional capability. There is a long marketing channel and most serious marketing problems are lack of transportation, fish diseases, lack of financial facilities, frequent strikes, fish theft, lack of research about fish marketing, unhygienic storing condition, lack of specialized fish marketing manpower and lack of adequate marketing infrastructure. Rohu, followed by Bachuwa (Pangasius), Naini, Catla and Magur are the fishes which are mostly consumed in Nepal. Fish consumption per capita in 2013 was 2.10 kg in Nepal. There are several fish and fishery product that are consumed by the consumer. In the market mostly live fishes, iced fishes, frozen fishes, dried fishes and canned fishes are consumed. Beside these fishes are also keep in aquarium for recreational purpose. Though Nepal is potential for fish farming, the production is still not satisfactory so we recommend Nepal government to address the problems faced by the farmers to improve fish farming in Nepal.

Keywords: Fish Farming; Water Resources; Marketing Channel; Consumption Level

Copyright: © 2018 Rachana Budhathoki and Bishnu Sapkota . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.