Study Area: The study was conducted in Bagerhat District, a coastal area of the Bay of Bengal, situated in the southwest part of Bangladesh. Geographically Bagerhat has been identified as the most important and promising area for freshwater prawn culture, because of the availability of wild postlarvae, favorable resources and climatic conditions, such as the availability of ponds, low-lying agricultural land, warm climate, fertile soil, and cheap and abundant labor Bagerhat district is divided into 9 sub-districts. Among them (1) agerhat Sadar, (2) Fakirhat, (3) Mollahat, and (4) Chitalmari are important for freshwater prawn farming. The remaining sub-districts are important for tiger shrimp farming as a result of salt-water intrusion. These four subdistricts were therefore selected for the study. One important prawn market in each sub-district was chosen for a market survey based on market history, supply of prawns, number of traders involved, and duration of trading season and time. Data Collection Methods: A wide range of tools can be used for data collection to support an analysis based on the SLA to obtain a broad and in-depth understanding. For this study, a combination of the following participatory, qualitative, and quantitative methods was used for data collection. Data were collected for 6 months from August 2004 to January 2005 during the peak season of prawn marketing. Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA): RMA is an efficient way to obtain policy relevant and intervention-focused information about any commodity sub sector. RMA techniques mostly rely on interviews with key informants and knowledgeable observers of a sub-sector. This study was designed to apply RMA to include: (i) identification of prawn marketing channels, (ii) visits to physical facilities such as prawn landing sites, markets, depots and processing plants, and (iii) direct observations of prawn marketing operations, transporting, processing and shipment to international markets. A total of 50 key informants were interviewed, including District and Sub-district Fisheries Officers, educated farmers, prawn traders, intermediaries, transporters, managers of processing plants, local leaders, and relevant non-governmental organization (NGO) workers. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA): PRA is a group of methods to collect information on a participatory basis from rural communities. The advantage of PRA over other methods is that it allows wider participation of the community; therefore the information collected is likely to be more accurate. The participation of a range of people from the community provides an opportunity for cross-checking individual opinions as well as allowing the community to discuss the issues that they feel are important, rather than responding to a questionnaire For this study Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were held with prawn farmers. FGD is a group meeting where people from the target communities discuss selected topics. FGD was used to solicit an overview of particular issues such as prawn harvesting and marketing, price of prawns, and constraints of prawn marketing. A total of 20 FGD sessions (5 in each sub-district) were conducted where each group consisted of 6 to 12 farmers (total 167 farmers) and the duration of each session was approximately 2 hours. FGD sessions were held in front of village shops, under large trees, in farmers’ houses and on market premises, wherever there were spontaneous gatherings and where participants could sit, feel comfortable and were easily observed. Questionnaire Interviews. Questionnaire interviews with prawn traders: were preceded by preparation and testing of the questionnaire, use of statistical procedures to determine the appropriate sample size and sampling method, and training of enumerators to fill in questionnaires. For questionnaire interviews, prawn traders were selected through simple random sampling. A total of 80 prawn traders, 20 in each market were interviewed at the market center in their trading premises. The interviews, lasting about an hour, focused on prawn distribution and marketing systems, marketing costs and margins, pricing mechanisms, marketing bottlenecks and opportunities, and socioeconomic conditions of traders. Data Analysis: Data from questionnaire interviews and FGD were coded and entered into Microsoft Excel software for analysis using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) to produce descriptive statistics. The Department for International Development (DFID) sustainable livelihoods framework was applied to structure the analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data. This framework helps to place observed prawn marketing practices in the context of market operators’ access to capital assets, vulnerability context, policies, institutions and processes that influence livelihood outcomes in terms of incomes, employment, and food security.