Agricultural Research Management Information System

Home
Research Summary
Search
About Us
- ARMIS
- Brochure
Contact Us
Report
User Request
Data Input
Help
- Operation Manual
  - PDF
  - Video
- Program Area & Commodity
We have reached 37600 number of research entries at this moment.

- Logout

Research Detail

Home
Research
Detail

Is Aquaculture Pro-poor? Empirical Evidence of Impacts on Fish Consumption in Bangladesh

KAZI ALI TOUFIQUE
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh

BEN BELTON
WorldFish, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Aquaculture is widely held to contribute to poverty reduction and food security in the Global South, but robust evidence is limited. Using nationally representative data from Bangladesh, this study analyses changes in fish consumption from 2000 to 2010. The rapid expansion of commercial aquaculture pegged down fish prices, resulting in increased fish consumption by extremely poor and moderate poor consumers and those in rural areas. These outcomes are closely linked to the pro-poor nature of the national economic growth during this period. These findings contribute to a broadening of the debate on whether the growth of aquaculture in Bangladesh has been pro-poor

Keywords: Pro-poor growth, Poverty, aquaculture, Capture fisheries, Bangladesh, Asia

Location: Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Impact

Objectives:

To investigate this dynamic further, this paper analyses whether changes in fish consumption in Bangladesh linked to the growth of aquaculture have been pro-poor, using fish consumption data collected by the Bangladesh Bureau of statistics for its Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) in 2000, 2005, and 2010. This analysis, which contributes to debates in Bangladesh and more widely on whether the effects of aquaculture’s growth have been pro-poor, is unique in utilizing a nationally representative dataset for this purpose, and in drawing explicit links between the outcomes of aqua-culture growth and wider changes in a national economy.

Methodology:

Fish classification: The Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) is a five-yearly nationally representative living standards measurement survey, conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). Food consumption data are collected by BBS using a survey module with a two-day recall period, administered to households on seven alternate days over a 14-day period. The survey as a whole is staggered across a period of one year in order to control for seasonal effects on consumption and expenditures (BBS, 2010). HIES datasets for 2000, 2005, and 2010 are available for purchase on request from BBS. All the data presented in the remainder of this paper are derived from these three datasets. Data on fish consumption were extracted from the survey food consumption module for each of the three years. Households were categorized as extreme-poor, moderate-poor or non-poor, according to BBS procedures described in the following subsection. In order to determine whether the growth of aquaculture has been pro-poor, it is necessary to distinguish between farmed and non-farmed fish. The HIES food consumption module records data on 15 categories of fish. Most of these categories include more than one species. Based on a review of literature, most of the categories of fish listed by HIES can be identified as containing fish originating primarily from either aquaculture, inland capture fisheries, or marine/estuarine capture fisheries 2(Ali, Haque, & Belton, 2012; Beltonet al., 2011, 2014; DOF, 2013; Hossain, Belton, & Thilsted, 2013; Mome, 2007; Rahman, Quddus, Pokrant, & Ali, 2006; Thompson et al., 2002). A small number of HIES fish categories are comprised of a mix of species originating from aquaculture and inland capture fisheries in roughly equal proportions. In the following analysis, these are assigned to a separate mixed group, labeled“inland capture and aquaculture.”Technological and market developments over the period during which the three surveys were conducted mean that several species of fish that originated primarily from inland capture fisheries in 2000 were also farmed in large quantities by 2010. As a result of these changes, the HIES groups“medium catfishes and gourami” and“climbing perch,” which originated primarily from inland capture fisheries in 2000, were reclassified as belonging to the mixed group“inland capture and aquaculture” in 2010. Similarly, the group“large catfishes,” which originated primarily from inland capture in2000, was dominated by a single farmed species, pangasius, from 2005 onwards. (b) Categorization of poverty Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics uses the cost of basic needs approach as the standard method for estimating the incidence of poverty. This method defines a lower poverty line and an upper poverty line. BBS also defines food and a non-food poverty line, which are used in the definition of the lower and upper poverty lines. There are three steps in the calculation of the food poverty line: (1) A basic food basket of eleven food items (including fish) is selected; (2) The quantities in the basket are scaled according to the nutritional requirement of 2,122 kilocalories per person per day; (3) The cost of acquiring the basket is calculated. The estimated cost is considered as the food poverty line. The non-food poverty line is calculated by estimating the average consumption expenditure on non-food items by the households close to the food poverty line. The upper poverty line is determined by adding together the food and non-food poverty lines. Extreme poor households are defined as those households whose total expenditures on food and non-food combined are equal to or less than the food poverty line. Moderate poor households are those households whose total expenditures are equal to or less than the upper poverty line but above the food poverty line. Non-poor households are those households whose total expenditures are above the upper poverty line (BBS, 2011).

Source of Information: World Development Vol. 64, pp. 609–620, 20140305-750X/Ó2014

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

These findings lead to two further conclusions. First, with respect to fish consumption, the pro-poor nature of aquaculture growth was contingent on the interplay of two factors: the expansion of fish supply and its effect of dampening fish prices, and the extent to which growth processes in the wider economy reduced inequality. Policies that encourage pro-poor growth may therefore be at least as important in ensuring that aquaculture results in pro-poor outcomes as policies that aim to promote aquaculture itself. A final conclusion is that viable capture fisheries complement pro-poor aquaculture growth from the supply side. The likelihood that the global transition in fisheries will generate pro-poor outcomes will be much greater if actions are taken to sustain the contributions of both sectors, rather than relying on aqua-culture alone to meet future demand.

Knowledge Management: Journal