Research for this article was conducted in the Satkhira district, a salinity-affected coastal area of the Bay of Bengal, situated in the southwestern part of Bangladesh. The SW regions of Bangladesh (Khulna, Bagerhat, and Satkhira Districts) operate 80% of the country’s shrimp farms (Alam et al., 2005; Pokrant, 2006). Satkhira has been identified as the most promising area for brackish water shrimp culture due to year-round moderate to high water salinity (Alam and Phillips, 2004). Shrimp is cultivated in this area mostly between February and November when the water of the surrounding rivers becomes saline. According to WAB biweekly routine sampling in the year 2009, the salinity range of the surrounding rivers/coastal waters varied from 212 ppt during the culture season (Feb-Nov). The dry season from November to February is hardly suitable for shrimp cultivation due to scarcity of water and its very high salinity. During the summer monsoon from July to October, some farmers grow rain-fed transplanted rice as the overall water salinity becomes low (Ali, 2006). The Satkhira district is divided into seven subdistricts. Among them, only Kaliganj and Shyamnagar subdistricts have been considered in this study, because the available saline water and the closeness to the river channels allow them to operate a large number of shrimp farms. Both subdistricts are located close to the world’s largest continuous mangrove forest and an OSP is implemented here by WAB Trading International. The 200 staff members of the OSP are mainly farmers but a few are well educated. The OSP works according to an internal control system; that is, quality management procedures, training, and inspections are performed by OSP staff to prepare for independent third party inspection and certification by the Institute of Market Ecology. An internal trainer in the OSP cannot be an inspector and vice versa. The external inspection and certification are based on current legislation for organic farming and organic aquaculture in the countries of import. Data were collected between October and December 2009 during the late harvesting season of shrimp farming. This study applied the quantitative and qualitative data collection methods reported in Ahmed et al. (2010). These are described here briefly. WAB cooperates with 160 organic farmers’ groups (15e40 farmers per group) in Kaliganj and Shymnagar subdistricts and 3379 individual organic farmers. From these 160 groups, 12 per subdistrict (a total of 24 groups from both subdistricts, that is, 15% of the 160 groups) were selected through a stratified random sample. In every group, farmers were again selected through stratified purposive random sampling based on the strata gher size (small, medium, and large). A total of 144 organic shrimp farmers (4.3% of all the organic shrimp farmers associated with WAB), 72 in each stratum from each subdistrict, 24 in each stratum from each farmer’s category, were sampled. At the beginning of the study, 10 transect walks (Chambers, 1992) were performed systematically with shrimp farmers by walking across the gher sites to build rapport. Transect walks allow researchers to speak with farmers and observe directly the sites relevant to the research (Chambers, 1994). This method of direct interaction with the farmers generated on-the-spot questions that gleaned informal information on resource use patterns and helped the researchers to understand the farming practices and daily livelihood activities of the farmers. The transect walks were also used to validate farmers’ answers in the questionnaires. Primary data were collected during a face-to-face field survey using a pretested, finalized questionnaire that contained both precoded and open-ended questions. Pretests were done with six nonsampled shrimp farmers. The pretested questionnaire (a brief list of questions is included in the Appendix) contained both precoded and open-ended questions. The questionnaire was developed in English and then translated into Bengali by the first author to ensure efficient communication with farmers during interviews. All respondents were male and were actively involved in gher farming. Each respondent was given a brief introduction about the nature and purpose of the study before the interview commenced. During the w40-min interview, questions were asked in sequence, with replies being recorded directly in the questionnaire. As a means of triangulating the data derived from questionnaires, several topics relevant to the study, such as farmer’s views and experiences in shrimp culture activities, were presented and discussed in focus groups (Morgan, 1997; Krueger and Casey, 2009). Eight focus group discussions were conducted in Kaliganj and Shyamnagar subdistricts (four in each). Each focus group session comprised 8e12 individuals and the duration of each discussion was approximately an hour. Focus group discussions were conducted only with organic shrimp farmers. The discussions were recorded with a digital voice recorder, and organized with the help of WAB staff members. Focus group discussions were held inside collection centres of WAB and in farmers’ residences with the first author acting as moderator of the sessions. WAB staffs were not present at focus group meetings. Questionnaire interview data were coded and entered into a database using MS-Access (Microsoft 2003). The statistical package for social science (SPSS15.0 for Windows) was used to produce descriptive statistics. Data were analysed in accordance with the sustainable livelihood framework that seeks to understand why farmers adopt organic farming and what factors impact rural livelihoods. Factors that influence the income from organic shrimp aquaculture were determined through multiple regression analysis (Field, 2005) using the formula. where Y is the dependent variable (here, income from organic shrimp production); b0 is the intercept and b1, b2, b3, b4, b5 and b6 are the slope parameters of the model. X1 is the age in years of the organic shrimp farmer, X2 is the number of persons in the household, X3 is the number of years of school attendance, X4 is the number of years of experience with shrimp farming, X5 is the number of labour including family and wage, X6 is the total gher area in hectares, and ε is an error term. The term “farmer” hereafter refers to organic shrimp farmer. The conversion of taka (Bangladesh currency) to U.S. dollars ($) was calculated based on the rates on December 2009.