World Aquaculture 35 Development of integrated prawn-fish-rice farming for sustainable livelihoods of the rural poor in Southwest Bangladesh Nesar Ahmed1 Bangladesh is considered to be one of the most suitable countries in the world for integrated prawn-fish-rice farming, because of its favorable agroclimatic conditions. Integrated prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) farming is currently one of the most important sectors of the national economy. During the last two decades its development has attracted considerable attention because of its export potential. The freshwater prawn, locally known as golda, is a highly valued product for international markets; almost all prawns are, therefore, exported, particularly to the USA, Japan and Europe. The export of prawns and shrimp was estimated at 46,533 t in 2005 with a value of US$380 million of which 27 percent was prawns (DOF 2006). Freshwater prawn farming is mostly concentrated in southwest Bangladesh, mainly in Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira districts because of the availability of wild fry, available low-lying agricultural land, a warm climate, fertile soil, and cheap and abundant labor. The total area under cultivation of prawns was estimated to be around 30,000 ha (Williams 2003). A large number of small and marginal farmers, less than 0.41 ha of land including ponds, are associated with prawnfish-rice farming in the Bagerhat district. Integrated prawn farming in rice fields is a common practice for these farmers to help them improve sustainability, productivity and profitability. Integration of prawns and fish with rice is the most efficient way of increasing production per per unit area of land. Prawn-fish-rice farming provides not only additional income from the yield of prawns and fish, it also improves the rice yield (Uddin et al. 2001). The present study sought to broadly understand integrated prawn farming, the development of which has been shown to lead to poverty reduction. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how sustainFig. 1. Map of Bangladesh showing the study area Fakirhat – ‘the Kuwait of Bangladesh.’ able livelihoods are achieved through integrated prawn-fish-rice farming. This article is based on published sources, together with the results of primary data collected in the Fakirhat area of the Bagerhat district (Figure 1). A total of 50 farmers and 200 associated groups were surveyed through questionnaire interviews and participatory rural appraisal tools from October 2005 to June 2006. History of Development In Bangladesh, freshwater prawn farming first started in the southwest region in the early 1970s (Mazid 1994). Locals learned to catch postlarvae from people on the Indian side of the Ichamati River. After the 1971 war, Hormuz Ali of Basantapur village noticed people on the Indian side fishing with nets. Crossing the river, he found that they were catching something of value, so he studied their techniques, bought a net and began to catch postlarvae prawns in the waters near his village (BOBP 1990). Around 1978, a few well-off local farmers in the Bagerhat area began to experiment with stocking prawns in carp ponds built on their land. These early innovators experimented with various technical aspects and profited well from their success (Kendrick 1994). Finally a few pioneers, sometime between the late 1970s and the mid 1980s, developed the first prawn farms in low-lying agricultural land and rice fields. The name most frequently raised as the father of freshwater prawn farming is Keramat Ali of the Fakirhat area in Bagerhat district (Rutherford 1994). In the late 1980s, the farming practice began to be adopted widely in the original location in the Fakirhat area, where prawns are grown along with carps and rice (Kamp and Brand 1994). By about 1987, a few local farmers converted their low-lying lands and rice fields into prawn farms (Kendrick 1994). Since then, the pace of adoption has in-
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