International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Research

Authors
Aminur Rashid, Md Atique Ashab

Abstract
Technology-based fish farming such as Biofloc fish farming is increasing day by day in Bangladesh. In this study, the socio-economic status of Biofloc fish farmers and the cost-benefit of Biofloc fish farming were assessed in the greater Sylhet Region of Bangladesh. A total of 23 randomly selected farmers were interviewed through a structured questionnaire. The study revealed that educated people (60.9%) are becoming more interested in technology-based fish farming and investing their own money (56.5%) in farm setting. No female Biofloc fish farmers were identified in the study area. It's also observed that all the interviewed farmers (100%) have a secondary option of earning and Biofloc fish culture is considered an easy option to get higher revenue. Most of the farmers (65.2%) belong to the age category of 30-40 and around 61% have an additional monthly income of 30000-50000 BDT/month. The cost-benefit analysis showed that the success of Biofloc depends on the quality of fish seed and feed and also the efficient management of the Biofloc system. The BCR of culturing tilapia and shing are 0.55 and 0.61 respectively while the BCR of Pabda was 1.04. As Biofloc is a new type of fish farming and the farmers are not well adapted to this technological advancement of fish farming technique, they faced multi-factorial problems from getting quality fish seeds to selling the product on the market. Social media such as YouTube and Facebook had a great impact on disseminating Biofloc technology at the field level, especially encouraging young educated people to get involved in Biofloc-based fish farming. However, more research should be taken to find out the best suitable species and profitability of Biofloc technology in aspects of Bangladesh.