SMALL FISH IN IMPROVING NUTRITION,

INCREASING INCOMES AND DEVELOPING

DOWNSTREAM MARKET LINKAGES

Benoy Kumar Barman

Senior Scientist

WorldFish, Bangladesh and South Asia

WorldFish Mission and Vision

Mission: To reduce poverty

and hunger by improving

fisheries and aquaculture

Vision: To be the research

partner of choice for

delivering fisheries and

aquaculture solutions in

developing countries

3

WorldFish Research Foci and How They Will Have Impact

Sustainably increase food and

nutrition security through fisheries

and aquaculture

Reduce poverty and vulnerability

through fisheries and aquaculture

Focal Area Key Research Questions

Climate

Change

Vulnerability

and

Adaptation

How will climate change affect fisheries

and aquaculture in developing countries

and how can adaptive capacity be built?

Improved

value chains

How can we improve input and output

value chains to increase the development

impact of aquaculture and fisheries?

Nutrition and

health

How can investments in fisheries and

aquaculture best improved human

nutrition and health?

Gender

equity

How can strengthening the rights of

marginalized fish dependent people reduce

inequality and poverty?

Sustainable

aquaculture

technologies

How do we increase productivity,

ecological resilience and development

impact of aquaculture?

Policies and

practice for

resilience

What policy and management investments

will increase the resilience of small-scale

fisheries and increase their contribution to

reducing poverty and hunger?

A Research in Development Using Two Linked

Complementary Levels of Research

Program

of System-Level

Action Research

&

Strategic Research

Agendas

Community

Vision-Informed

Researcher

Leadership

Community Level

Program of Action

Research,

Inquiry and

Capacity Building

Researcher, NGO

& Public Ins

support

Farmer

Leadership

Science

Outputs

Development

Outcomes

Platform for Practice, Knowledge, Coordination &

Communication

“Mache Bhate Bengali” – Fish and Rice

Make Bengali People

National, Rural and Urban Annual Fish Intakes Per

Capita, 2000-2010

Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2007 and 2012

Fish Consumption (kg)

Change in

consumption

(2000-2005)

Change in

consumption

(2005-2010)

2000 2005 2010 (kg) (%) (kg) (%)

National 14.05 15.37 18.07 1.31 9.4 2.70 17.6

Rural 13.8 14.49 16.71 0.69 5.0 2.22 15.3

Urban 14.93 18.1 21.86 3.18 21.2 3.76 20.8

Changes in Farmed and Non-Farmed Fish Consumption 957

households in 4 districts, 1996-2006

(IFPRI survey; for 957 households in 4 Districts) Quartile 1 – poorest Q4 – Better-off)

1996 2006

Contribution of farmed fish in household consumption increasingly higher than

non-farmed fish; gap among well-being categories also reduced for farmed and

non-farmed fish consumption

Fish Production in Bangladesh - Past, Present

and Future Projection

Fish Production in 2011-12 is 3.262 M MT (DoF, 2012)

Acute problems on micronutrient malnutrition of

poorer households especially pregnant women

lactating mother and minor children is very high in

Bangladesh, also in other countries of South Asia.

There are underweight 41%, stunted 43% and

wasted 17% children (UNICEF 2008)

Women and girl child are more subjected to this

problem than boys

IFAD funded

Project on Linking Fisheries and Nutrition:

Promoting Innovative Fish Production Technologies

in Ponds and Wetlands with Nutrient-Rich Small

Fish Species in Bangladesh

Small Fish and Nutrition Project

Goal of the Project

To increase income, improve nutrition (focus

on first 1000 days of life) of poorer farming

and fishers’ households through increased

production and consumption of small fish (rich

with micro-nutrients)

Micronutrient-rich Small fish

‘Mola’ (Amblypharyngodon

mola)

Micronutrient-rich Small fish ‘Darkina’ (Esomus

danricus) with few other small fish

IFAD Funded Small Fish and

Nutrition Project

Northwest (upland dry

areas with seasonal water

supply): 1,500 households

with small homestead ponds

and pond connected rice

fields

Northeast (areas with

seasonal floodplains called

‘haor’: community groups of

fishers, 500 households

managing a wetland

Both areas with higher

proportion of poorer

households

Duration: 32 months;

completed in June, 2013

Activities and Implementation Strategies

� Identification of communities with and without project

intervention

� Conduct survey of household using simple questionnaire

� Selection of households with ponds (1500) and wetland

(517)

� Formation of Groups in Communities with ponds (80) and

wetland (21)

� Selection of Lead Farmers/Fishers (LFs)

� ToT for Support Providers and LFs on Technologies and

Nutrition Education

� Training of men and women household members in

communities by LFs

� Conduct Household Food Consumption Survey

Activities and Implementation Strategies

� Development and Uses of Innovative Technologies � Collection and transportation of mola as live for stocking in ponds and

ditches of wetlands

� Use of tools to harvest small fish separating from large fish without

stress

� Establishment of sanctuaries and application of regulation measures in

gear uses for wetlands

� Harvesting small fish regularly for sale and household consumption

� Nutrition education to members of households

� Awareness on importance of mola for pregnant women, lactating

mother and minor children

� Develop methods on how to process and cook mola useful for feeding of

minor children

� Sharing Lessons Learned in workshops, visits, conference –

Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Cambodia

� Extended support for dissemination of technologies and NE

Fish Production and Income from Pond

� Fish production and income more than doubled than

baseline year fish production and income

� Fish production in pond increased from 1398 ± 307

kg/ha to 2974 ± 408 kg/ha

� Gross income BDT 140,000 ±30,000/ha to BDT

320,000± 45,000/ha (I USD = BDT 77)

� Contribution of mola and other small fish to total fish

production increased from 4.6 % to 31%.

� Fish production and income even higher when ponds

are connected to ricefields during the wet season – fish

production 4093 ± 1909 kg/ha and gross income BDT

440,000 ± 200,000/ha.

Mola harvest from pond

Investment on fish production in pond

� Stocking of mola broodfish (initially) for perennial

pond and every year for seasonal pond; 35 to

40kg/ha, cost BDT 10,000-12,000/ha

� Needs extra cost for fertilization of pond and use of

supplementary feed

� Cost for netting of ponds for harvest of bulk harvest

of fish, use local gear for harvest of fish for regular

household consumption

� Cost associated with the construction of dyke of rice

field if the pond connected to rice fields seasonally for

achieving higher production

� Incurred around 15-20% extra investment, complete

Fish production and income from wetland

� Three-folds increase in fish production from

256kg/ha to 755kg/ha

� In a77 ha wetland initial fish production was

19,736kg/ha which increased to 58,101kg/ha

� Gross income BDT 20,559/ha to BDT 72,757/ha (1

USD = BDT 77)

� Fish species diversity in the wetland increased

from 49 to 68

� Contribution of mola in total fish production 8%

(3rd in position before project intervention which

was almost absence

Bulk harvest of mola and other small fish

from wetland

Extended the impacts of introduction of small

fish in ponds and wetlands

� Stocking in one floodplain reported to increase

production of small fish in adjacent floodplains

� Communities with ponds stocked with small fish

(mola) increase also helps the availability of mola

in the surrounding aquatic system allowing for

people to get the fish harvest and to use for

income earning and nutritional benefits

� Studies are now carrying out in both cases to get

the evidence of the small fish

Investment on fish production in wetland

� Stocking of mola broodfish (initially) for in

ditches of the wetland 4-5 kg/ha

� Payment lease values to the government

� Cost for establishment of sanctuaries or

reconstruction of ditches in wetlands

� Support to provide alternative income

generation during period on regulation in use of

gears - project tried for establishment of cage

based fingerling involving women members of the

fishers households

� Example - Government uses supply of food in

case of ban on fishing of hilsa fishers in coastal

areas

Contribution of Mola and Other Small Fish in

Household Consumption

Contribution of small fish from pond in

household consumption, sale 12 % in 2011,

which is increased to 26% in 2012

Contribution of small fish in household

consumption increased from 9.5% in 2011 to

18.6% in 2012

Marketing of small fish

� Small fish has high demand largely sold in the

farmgate and in local market

� Small fish can be purchased even in small amount

easy to afford by poorer consumers

� Supply of small fish through regular harvest from

ponds and wetlands useful to meet up the continued

demands of the people for longer period

� Fishers received higher proportion of income through

harvest of small fish from ponds and wetlands

� Open catch from the floodplains in many cases

allowed landless people to harvest and sell fish for their

livelihoods

Nutrition Education

Way Forward

� Small fish and nutrition project clearly

demonstrated the use of the technologies, its

dissemination and adoption by farmers and

fishers with success

�Within 2-3 years of its introduction large

numbers of institutions: DoF, LGED, NGOs,

and WorldFish have taken initiatives for its

promotion in Bangladesh, Nepal and India

Way Forward

Needs to take initiative on how the technologies along

with Nutrition Education can be disseminated

throughout Bangladesh and other countries of the

world with having high potential for its promotion to

have major impacts on improved human nutrition and

health

Needs to make the analysis of such success in broader

framework system based framework which includes

economic, social, cultural, gender and environmental

issues for better understanding before wider

dissemination.