1 Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, FAO, Bangladesh
2 National Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant, FAO, Bangladesh
Author
Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 9 doi: 10.5376/ija.2013.03.0009
Received: 11 Apr., 2013 Accepted: 24 Apr., 2013 Published: 06 May, 2013
This is an open access article published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Howlader and Abul, 2013, Study on Comparative Assessment of Aquaculture Technology Adoption by the Carp, Golda and Bagda Fishers in the Sidre Affected Area of Bangladesh, International Journal of Aquaculture, Vol.3, No.9 38-42 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2013. 03.0009)
The study was carried out in November 2102 to assess the comparative assessment of aquaculture technology adoption by the Carp, Golda and Bagda fishers in the Sidre affected area of Bangladesh. The study was done under the Emergency 2007 Cyclone Recovery and Restoration (ECRRP) Project (Component-A) with the help of staff of Shakoler Janny Kallyan, Non Government organization (NGO). There were three types of respondents (Carp, Golda and Bagda Fishers). The summery findings of the study are described in this section in briefly. It is found from the analysis that 100% of the Carp fishers indicated to have adopted at least one new aquaculture technology disseminated by the project for improved carp fish culture in the ponds. 31.5% of the Carp fishers indicated to have adopted 4 types of new technologies (the list of the new aquaculture technologies were identified by the project expert and DoF field officials) while 20.3% adopted five types of new technologies. The 100% of the Golda fishers adopted at least one new technology disseminated by the project for improved Golda shrimp culture. 95.5% adopted the technology named “improved Pond/Gher preparation” while the adoption rate of female fishers (98.1%) is higher than in male (94.9%). 100% of the Bagda fishers adopted at least one new technology disseminated by the project for improved Bagda shrimp culture in Ghers/ponds. The second highest number of fishers (88.85%) adopted the technology of “use of supplementary fish feed” while the lowest number of fishers (48%) adopted the technology “maintaining proper shrimp post larvae stocking” from the five disseminated new technologies by the project.
Unprecedented severe Cyclone Sidr in November 2007 caused huge damage and losses to the livelihoods and assets of some 2 million rural families in the south-west of Bangladesh (30 districts were affected, of which 12 severely affected Upazilas in 5 districts). Livelihood of majority of these people, are closely related to the production and income drawn from activities, directly or indirectly, in the agriculture sector (crops, fisheries and livestock). Hardest hit were the poor farmers, i.e. those who are characterized as small (with 0.2 ha to 1.0 ha), marginal (with less than 0.2 ha) and the even more vulnerable landless farmers who cultivate very small plots (0.02 ha or below) that they take lease from others, as well as those eking out a living from small-scale fishing or the few animals and poultry that they raise. Although natural disasters are a common occurrence in Bangladesh, destruction of infrastructure, housing, farm equipment, cattle and fishing boats during the passage of the cyclone has had a devastating effect on the life of these groups and on agricultural production.
The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has agreed with donors that an integrated, multi-pronged approach is required for the economic recovery of the affected areas and for the reconstruction or replacement of destroyed physical assets, to ensure the protection and livelihood rehabilitation of communities living in those areas. The World Bank (WB) cyclone assistance program includes three major elements: budget support in the form of a quick-disbursing US$100 million supplement to the GoB budget; livelihood support (medium-term restoration and recovery) (Asian Development Bank, 2000), with an additional US$50 million allocated to the Social Investment Program Project (SIPP) for assistance to the affected poor households in micro-credit, emergency assistance funds, restoration of community infrastructure and income generating activities; and the Emergency 2007 Cyclone Recovery and Restoration Project (ECRRP), focusing on the critical medium to long-term restoration and rehabilitation needs as identified in the Joint Damage Loss and Needs Assessment (FAO et al., 2006).
There are three sub-components under component-A of ECRRP. The fisheries sub-component of the project consists of two different and well distinct sub-sectors, namely aquaculture and capture fishery. The current open access of capture fisheries has led to significant unplanned development and increasing fishing pressure on the natural resources. Although the provision of fisheries equipment (e.g. improved boats, nets and safety equipment) is a clear immediate need to those who rely on fisheries production as a source of livelihoods, a longer term view is needed to maintain the sustainability of this resource into perpetuity. The structural weaknesses of fishing boats and the poor quality of wood used are of concern and need to be improved through training of boat builders (FAO, 2010a). Additionally improved data on the capture fishery and stock assessment systems of the natural resources, improved safety at sea and systems for quality assurance are other concerns in the sector. With regards to aquaculture, the current Government strategy emphasizes the need to introduce certification of aquaculture hatcheries together with training for improved seed quality for aquaculture and proper zoning (FAO, 2011). To support these strategic priorities, specific project activities may include.
1 Result and Discussion
The summery findings of the study are described in this section in brief below, compared with the three different types of fishers. The three different types of aquaculture fishers (Carp, Golda and Bagda) have been assessed separately in terms of technology adoption for fish culture.
1.1 Carp Fishers
Table 1 Basic information of carp fishers
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Table 2 Status of technology adoption on improved carp fish culture by the carp fishers
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It was found that 94.4% of the Carp beneficiaries indicated that they adopted technology named “improved pond preparation” whilst 35.2% of the Carp beneficiaries indicated to have adopted the technology named “Application of fish disease prevention method”.
Table 3 Status of technology adoption on improved carp fish culture by the carp fishers
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100% of the Carp fishers indicated to have adopted at least one new aquaculture technology disseminated by the project for improved carp fish culture in the ponds. 31.5% of the Carp fishers indicated to have adopted 4 types of new technologies (the list of the new aquaculture technologies were identified by the project expert and DoF field officials) while 20.27% adopted five types of new technologies.
The highest number of Bagda fishers adopted 4 new technologies (40.4%) (list of new technologies were identified by the project staff and DoF field officials) while 34.6% adopted 3 new improved technologies while only 14.6% of the fishers adopted five new technologies.
2 Conclusion
The study reveals the findings of adopting new technologies by the different types of fishers. It can be concluded that all types of fishers adopted at least one technology during fish culture though many respondents adopted more than one technology. The project introduced several numbers of technologies to the target different types of fishers for successfully culturing fish. It was found that the overall annual average production, the gained experience, the adoption of new technologies and the average income of fishers increased, although the average income of Bagda fishers did not increase to the same extent compared to Carp and Golda fishers.
3 Methods and Materials
3.1 Administered Data Collection Format
The Study Data Collection Format was developed and shared with other consultants of the project and fine tuned by the Author (M&E Specialist) incorporating their feedbacks. After fine tuning, it was finalized though field test.
3.2 Provide Orientation
An orientation was organized for the staffs of implementing NGO named Shakoler Janno Kallyan (SJK) on process of data collection. The data collection process was demonstrated practically in the field after providing orientation.
3.3 Determination of Sample Size
During the study 375 carp fishers (Male 89% and Female 11%) out of 3,500 were interviewed. Similarly, 308 Golda fishers (83% male and 17% female) out of 1,100 Golda fishers and 260 Bagda fishers (Male 89% and Female 11%) out of 650 Bagda fishers were selected as sample fishers to assess the adoption of the technologies disseminated by the project. impact and achievements.
3.4 Data Collection and Quality Control
The staff of SJK collected data from the all selected fishers through individual interview. The fishers of carp are 3500 Nos., Bagda are 650 Nos. and Golda are 1100 Nos. It is noted that the fishers were selected through using systematic random sampling method from the population. During data collection Aquaculture Specialist and Fisheries Training Specialist and M&E Specialist verified the data collection process physically in the field.
3.5 Data Processing and Analyzing
Data entry was done in the Micro-Soft Excel sheet. The collected data was processed the Database through cleaning, sorting and scrutinizing of data. The Database was analyzed using SPSS program after checking the inconsistency, reliability and validity of the Data.
3.6 Report Preparation
The report was prepared through analyzing data and preparing some tables and graphs with description. Draft report was submitted to the other colleagues of the project for feedbacks and suggestions. Report was finalized after incorporating their feedback and suggestions.
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