The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The livestock and fisheries sectors have suffered colossal losses in cyclone SIDR and large-scale assistance is urgently needed to revive the sector, business leaders said.

Frozen food industry, the country's second-largest foreign exchange earner, suffered an estimated loss of around Tk 350 crore in the deadly storm.

According to the Department of Livestock Services, over 10,000 cattle and 22 lakh poultry were killed alone in four severely affected districts in the coastal area.

A total of over 45 lakh cattle and 270 lakh poultry were affected in the devastating cyclone in 12 southern and southwestern districts. A large number of cattle and poultry are feared to have died due to various post-cyclone infectious diseases.

According to a report of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, more than 3.50 lakh ruminants including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and also poultry have been lost.

Serious damage has been observed in the fisheries and shrimp aquaculture sectors. In Morelganj and Sharankhola upazilas, important shrimp producing areas, some 5000 shrimp enclosures were destroyed.

In Bagerhat district some 90 per cent of the shrimp enclosures along the River Baleshwar were destroyed and flushed by tidal waves, sources concerned said.

Shrimp farms in Satkhira and Khulna were severely ravaged by Sidr and are likely to suffer 70 per cent or Tk 175 crore (about US$ 25 million) of the estimated loss.

The cyclone damaged structures of 45,559 water bodies on 154,000 acres (about 62,370 hectares) in eight districts is estimated at Tk 3.18 crore (about US$ 454,000).

Approximately 63 lakh kg of fish worth Tk 2.51 crore (about US$3.6 million) and 4,460 kg of shrimp worth Tk 809,000 (about US $11,557) were washed away in these districts.

Huge fish fries were also washed away incurring a loss of about Tk 6.27 crore (about US$896,000).

Hundreds of shrimp production fields in the southern and southwestern coastal areas were washed away by the cyclone.

Shrimp farmers usually receive loans from shrimp exporters and are committed to sell their products to the exporters. The farmers will not be able to sell their products to the exporters now as the cyclone washed away nearly 30 per cent of the country's shrimp farms.

"We need interest-free bank loans so that we can provide more loans to the farmers," Kazi Belayet Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA) said. "Additionally, the government should offer direct support to the farmers immediately," he added.