Page 50 - World Aquaculture Magazine - March 2011

48 March 2011
on char land because of the
alluvial soil. As a result of
rice farming, the house-
holds of char dwellers are
able to eat rice three times a
day for a few months a year.
Increased rice production
has also made paddy straw
more available for build-
ing houses, as cooking fuel
and as fodder for cattle. As
a result of fodder availabil-
ity, milk and cow dung are
available and cheap in the
char area. Cow dung is used
as cooking fuel and fertil-
izer, while milk is regarded
as suitable food for chil-
dren. Nevertheless, almost
all char dwellers reported
that cattle raising is difficult during
the flood season because of reduced
grazing land. Poultry rearing is also
challenging during the flood season.
Nevertheless, the raising of ducks has
increased substantially on the char
land.
According to the survey, char
dwellers specifically face problems
with scarcity of fresh drinking water.
As a result, women had to walk long
distances to procure drinking wa-
ter from tube-wells. Almost all char
dwellers relied on river water for bath-
ing and washing and household mem-
bers experienced rashes and itching
as a result of using river water. They
also face severe health problems with
no medical facilities as people often
suffer from diarrhea, cholera, dysen-
tery, skin diseases, malnutrition and
mosquito-borne diseases such as den-
gue fever and malaria. Char dwellers
also lack education for the children,
house building materials, cooking
fuel, marketing facilities, and road
and transport facilities.
In spite of the poor socioeconomic
conditions of char dwellers, dead-
river fish culture has been associated
with substantial social and economic
benefits. Positive impacts appear to
be income, food consumption, liveli-
hoods and women’s empowerment. It
is recognized by the family and soci-
ety that women play a major role in
dead-river fish culture. Fish farming
activities of women at the community
Fencing and fish harvesting are labor-intensive work for dead-
river fish culture.
level have enhanced their position in
families. Women now tend to play a
stronger role in economic decisions
for the management of their house-
holds.
Outlook: Opportunities and
Challenges
Dead-river fish culture seems to
be a considerably profitable activity
for char dwellers. Nevertheless, adop-
tion of dead-river fish culture to date
remains marginal in char areas. While
there is great potential for dead-river
fish culture, a number of issues were
identified including the lack of techni-
cal knowledge on fish farming, inad-
equate supplies of fish fingerlings, high
production costs, inadequate mar-
keting facilities including roads and
Table 2. SWOT analysis for the development of dead-river fish culture.
Strengths
Open access to dead-river
Fish culture without feed and fertilizer
Available labor from char dwellers
High demand of fish in market
Environmental friendly activity
Weaknesses
Inadequate supply of fish fingerlings
Lack of technical knowledge
Inadequate government support
Lack of credit facilities
Poor socioeconomic conditions
Opportunities
Increased fish production (food supply)
Increased income
Livelihood opportunities
Optimum utilization of water
Improvement of socioeconomic condi-
tions
Threats
Natural disaster (flood and drought)
Increasing production costs
River erosion
Increasing population
Theft and other social conflicts
transport, lack of credit fa-
cilities and natural disasters
(flood and drought). Fur-
ther expansion of dead-river
fish culture is hampered by
a number of constraints in-
cluding poor socioeconomic
conditions of char dwellers,
lack of education facilities,
inadequate extension ser-
vices, lack of technical as-
sistance and lack of govern-
ment support. It seems that
the benefits of dead-river fish
culture technology go to the
more prosperous people un-
less institutional and organi-
zational support is provided
to the ultra-poor. Unfavor-
able social environments can
also pose risk of losses through theft
of fish and conflicts among people
within the community.
In spite of several constraints, there
are opportunities for dead-river fish
culture development in the char area.
Inasmuch as dead-river fish farming
is innovative, more char dwellers are
interested in becoming involved in the
activity to supplement their livelihoods
and income. If dead-river fish farm-
ing is expanded to other char areas in
northern Bangladesh, fish production
as well as the local food supply will
increase well beyond their present lev-
els. Moreover, income of char dwellers
will increase substantially. A SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats) analysis was carried out
with char dwellers to identify dead-river
fish culture development (Table 2).