DoF officials in IIRR training course

As part of a programme of capacity building of DoF staff in GNAEP. Mr. Abdul Aziz, District Fisheries Officer of Feni and Mr. Sunil Chandra Ghosh, Senior Upazila Fisheries Officer, Ramgoti participated an international training course on Participatory Approaches to Development Management conducted by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) at Silang in the Philippines from May 2-20, 2005, A total of 14 participants from 10 countries attended the course.

The course was designed for senior and mid-level development managers and other professionals. The course covered development trends, multiple development approaches in managing sustainable and people-centered development organizations. It also addressed the challenges of facilitating participatory development within development organizations and their partner communities. Participants were introduced to real-life experience in development management. The course was built around observations of community-level development efforts in the Philippines, and included sharing and reflecting on experience from other countries.

Workshop on waterlogged paddy lands

Each year in the rainy season a large area of cultivable land in Noakhali District remains inundated for 6-8 months. Locally these inundated lands are know as ‘dogi’ or ‘hator’. To identify the feasibility of fisheries development in these dogies and to analyze the livelihood strategies of the poor people living around them, a study was carried out by the Institute of Marine Sciences, Chittagong University, as previously reported in these pages. To share the findings of this study, a workshop was held on March 30, 2005 in the conference room of GNAEP, attended by Upazila Fisheries Officers, GNAEP senior personal and field officers. GNAEP’s Extension and Training Advisor explained the objectives of the workshop following a simple inauguration by the Project Director. Professor Dr. Noni Gopal Das and Assistant Professor Sgadat Hossain presented the detailed findings of the survey to the audience. Extension discussion then followed leading to recommendations for a pilot project for culturing fish and prawn in the dogis to be implemented by the Department of Fisheries.