Almighty Allah has blessed Pakistan with plenty of water resources in the form of marine, saline and freshwater reservoirs. A variety of aquatic flora and fauna is found in these reservoirs in million and trillion in number. Among all these varieties fish is considered most important due to its nutritional values and economic importance. In Pakistan mostly fish farms are located in Sindh, Punjab, and the coastal belt of Balochistan and to a small extent in KPK.
Over several decades natural water bodies, dams, lakes, waterlogged areas, rivers, canals, barrages, reservoirs, and ponds are frequently used for fish farming. Freshwater ponds cover a 60470ha area and natural warm water lacks covers the 110,000ha area in Pakistan. Pakistan has also been endowed with fish harbour and major fish harbours are sited in Karachi, Pasni, Korangi and Gwader. Along with this, other small scale fish harbours of Sindh and Balochistan are rich in fish farming resources and work as functional units for fish processing. In Punjab, most farms are located in district Attock, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura and Southern Punjab regions, which constitute nearly three-quarters of total fish farms in province Punjab. KPK covers mostly mountainous regions with cold climatic conditions, thus it has fewer farms that covered 30,000ha area as compared to a total covered area. Trout farming is practised in Swat, Dir, Mansehra, Malakand, FATA and some other areas. Along with trout, other commercially valuable sport fish such as snow trout and mahseer are being grown in cold water bodies.
Fish provides necessary nutrients for those whose diet is monotonous and missing in animal products. Although fish is a delicious and well-known dish but unfortunately in Pakistan per capita consumption of fish is only 2kg per year. That was the lowest as compared to the world average per capita consumption which is 17kg per year. Export is considered one of the major reasons for this low consumption in Pakistan.
Fish has been consumed as an important dietary source for many years due to its nutritional value and easily digestible protein concentration. Fish is easily palatable and highly proteinous food so it is considered a preferable diet component. Fish is considered part of a balanced diet because it contains proteins, amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamins (A, D and B), minerals like iron, sodium, phosphorus, iodine and calcium. Fish contains usually low saturated fats and cholesterol as Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA). Fish is also a big source of Lysine, Cysteine, Methionine and Tryptophan. These are necessary for our health. Fish protein contains a balanced ratio of all the essential amino acids hence it is considered a complete protein diet.
Commercially, the important fish fauna of Pakistan consists of 250 demersal fish, 20 large, 15 medium, 50 small pelagic fish about 12 squid, cuttlefish, octopus and about 15 shrimp species and 5 species of lobsters. Among these 35 shellfish and 20 finfish species are commercially more important. Major carps including Morakhi, Rohu, Thaila in Pakistan have a preferential culture due to high commercial value. Pakistan has a fish market for shrimps, fish and sea food at the national and international levels. A significant increase in total production rate was estimated during (FY 2016-17) 477,000 MT out of which 332,000MT was from marine resources while other was obtained through inland fishery resources while it was 8,430MT in 2010. Moreover, during FY 2017-18 total productions were reached approximately 482,000MT of which 338,000 MT was produced by marine reservoirs whereas remaining from inland reservoirs.
The production rate of fish in (FY 2019-20) was 701,726 MT, out of which 474,025MT came from the marine sector while the remaining came from the inland fishery sector. On the other side, the production rate decreased 1.5% during FY 2020-21. Decrease in productivity rate indicating reasons like overfishing with the use of banned nets and other shrinking sources. In Pasni Balochistan province Kalaki and Gallo fish has been entirely wiped out whereas, Palla in Sindh and Paplet, Kalgunandzardum, in some other areas of Balochistan province have been completely disappearing.
TASMIA SHABANA
LAHORE
