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Impacts of Community-based Fish Culture in Seasonal Floodplains on Income, Food Security and Employment in Bangladesh

A. B. M. Mahfuzul Haque
Wageningen University, The Netherlands & WorldFish-Bangladeshand South Asia , House 22B, Block-F, Road 7, Banani, Dhaka 1213,Bangladesh

Madan Mohan Dey
Department of Agriculture, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78644, USA

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

This paper examines the impact of community-based fish culture in seasonal floodplains on fish production, consumption, income, and food security of the participating households in Bangladesh. An analysis was performed using a randomly selected 46 % of the households from the three project and control floodplains; data were collected using longitudinal surveys on a seasonally, quarterly and monthly basis for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. Fish production, income and food security of the participating households was improved due to the adoption of an equitable and inclusive multi-stakeholder approach introduced by the project. Average fish production increased from 124 kg/ha/yr. to 464kg/ha/yr. The introduced community-based fish culture approach generated 3.74 times more fish income for households in the project sites in comparison to the control sites. Per capita monthly fish consumption increased from 1.26 kg to 2.31 kg in the project sites, which was 32 % higher than the control sites. Project implementation reduced the vulnerability of local beneficiaries, particularly of the landless and poor fishermen, by creating additional fishing opportunities for up to 6 months of the year. Promotion of the community-based fish culture in seasonal floodplains may thus be useful in bringing about positive changes in the overall floodplain productivity and livelihood gains for the poor people of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Seasonal floodplain. Fish culture. Multi stakeholder approach. Food security and livelihood

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Commodity: Fish

Objectives:

This paper examines the multi-dimensional impact of CBFC in seasonal floodplains at both household level and community level, based on data collected under the community-based Fish Culture in Seasonal Floodplains and Irrigation System^project in Bangladesh.

Methodology:

Many studies have failed to establish a counterfactual when conducting before-and-after analysis to assess the impact of new technology on income, food security, etc. (Adato and Meinzen-Dick 2007). In order to avoid the counterfactual situation, we have considered introducing community-based fish culture technology with baseline and panel data and also compared before-and-after scenarios in the selected sites and households, both with and without adoption of the technology. This paper used data collected3from six floodplains in Bangladesh, of which three were CBFC project areas and three were control sites. It is important to mention that these control floodplains were chosen in such a way so that the socio-economic and environmental conditions were similar to the CBFC project floodplains. DoF officials and researchers who were involved in this project visited the proposed sites several times in order to identify the target populations. Several meetings were organized with the local people and households which mainly depended on floodplains for their income were selected as project members and included in the community management project. Control households were selected in the same way. The project officially started in 2005 and floodplains were selected in 2006. Project staff conducted a baseline survey in 2006 in project and control areas, which covered the floodplains used for fishing, rice production, and some additional household socio-economic data. A range of qualitative and quantitative techniques coupled with community profiles, participatory resource mapping, field observations, semi-structured interviews with key informants, and Focus Group Discussions was applied for collecting baseline information. Building on the baseline survey, a stratified random sampling procedure was followed to select the households for the monitoring of various parameters. The strata identified were professional or full-time fishers, landless seasonal fishers, and landowners. Sixty samples from each floodplain were selected annually for this study: 180 samples from project floodplains and 180 samples from control floodplains. Out of the total population of 778 households in six project and control areas, about 46 % of the households were selected. Data were collected using longitudinal surveys on a quarterly, seasonal (six month-ly) and monthly basis. Information on earnings and expenditure were collected on a quarterly basis, data on crop production and input use were collected at six-monthly intervals, and fish consumption data were collected on a monthly basis. Three years (2007, 2008 and 2009) worth of panel data were used for this analysis. This paper aimed to describe a before-and-after analysis on the intervention and without an intervention design, but it was not possible for all indicators. Before-and-after and project-control comparisons were simultaneously followed depending on the availability of data. Before and after analysis was used when the data were available and compatible, while a with-and-without intervention analysis was made to monitor the changes and to analyze the impact of CBFC. All surveys were designed and managed using a relational access database. Data collected were tabulated and analyzed in accordance with the objectives of the study. Descriptive statistics and cost and return analyses of the selected floodplains were made. At the level of the beneficiaries, descriptive analysis was also conducted for the consumption data. However, for the income data of the beneficiaries, a random effect model of panel data was run. Having established that the random-effects model is a better fit, a quantitative random-effects model was developed to estimate the impact of participating in the program on fish production and household income. Before the model estimation, a propensity score matching (PSM) method was employed to make comparisons between program participants and the control group.

Source of Information: Food Sec. (2017) 9:25–38

Article Link (Online Journal): DOI 10.1007/s12571-016-0629-z

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The impacts of community-based fish culture in seasonal floodplains have been diverse across, and within, floodplains. The results presented in this paper clearly show that there is potential to introduce fish culture systems in the place of capture fishery activity in floodplain areas. This can increase fish production, supply vital nutrition to poor households and improve the overall welfare of the low-income and resource-poor households. The introduction of this approach has had a significant and positive impact on income, employment, and household nutrition for adopters. This paper also demonstrates that the income of laborers and fish consumption were significantly higher among the project beneficiary households than control households. Since there were no major differences between project beneficiaries and controls in terms of socio-economic parameters, such as household size, floodplain size, experience in collective action, and there were no other projects that took place during this time period, it can be concluded that the achievement of all benefits, in terms of fish production, consumption, employment generation, and overall food security during the project period was mainly due to project implementation. The innovations of the community-based approach to fish culture in floodplains have been widely used in Bangladesh by different institutions (including the Department of Fisheries, Government of Bangladesh), as well as in other countries of Asia. The CBFC system has huge potential benefits, as a large number of people depend on the 2.8 million hectares of floodplains for their livelihoods. Improvements in floodplain productivity and ecosystem services are important, as are addressing issues of governance for how to manage floodplains and make the system work. The promotion of community-based fish culture in seasonal floodplains may thus be a useful tool to bring about dramatic positive changes in trends of overall productivity and livelihood gains for poor people in Bangladesh.

Knowledge Management: Journal