Idea of developing 3 ‘village type prawn hatcheries' based upon training at Raipur Hatchery and Training Centre abandoned following 2001 consultancy recommendations.

Private sector investment in prawn hatcheries encouraged:
– First hatchery opened in Lakshmipur in 2002, produced 1.1 mln PL in first year.
– Second hatchery opened in Sonapur in 2003. Together hatcheries produced 4.8 mln PL in 2003.
– Two hatcheries modestly expanded capacity for 2004 season. First cycle underway. 1.05 mln PL distributed from Sonapur hatchery since April 27, 2004 . Expected production in first cycle 4.2 mln and total around 10 mln.

Out of the total credit fund of Taka 46 million, by the end of 2004, a total of Taka 41.06 million has been disbursed to the NGOs and through them to the farmers. Treated as a revolving fund, some of the credit funds have been disbursed at least twice. Total borrowing to date is almost Taka 90 million. A total of 23,269 farmers have been offered credit.

Realization has generally been close to 100%, with some fall in late 2004 because of the impact of widespread flooding in Noakhali. The NGOs have thus allowed some postponement of repayment schedules.

GNAEP conducted a massive survey of pond holders in 2000 before Project intervention in the first 6 Upazilas and repeated this exercise in the remaining 8 Upazilas before start-up in 2002. These surveys said little about the socio-economic status of the pond holders (apart from land holding) and were of limited value for assessment of socio-economic impact. A second ‘socio-economic baseline' of a sample of 600 households was carried out by international consultants in 2002, but was not completed until early 2004. The survey only covered a minority of target pond holders. However, it did show that most pond holders in Noakhali were not among the poorest groups.

The GNAEP MEU carries out a variety of monitoring tasks and surveys each year. These are prepared in a range of reports.