The Greater Noakhali Aquaculture Extension Project (GNAEP) is a project of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) supported by the Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA), implemented by the Department of Fisheries (DoF). The overall goal of the project is to improve the lives of the poor fish farmers by raising income from their available water resources through promotion of improved and sustainable aquaculture practices. Originally the project focused on pond aquaculture, but experience indicated that a carp polyculture in the small ponds available to most households does not significantly increase household incomes. Therefore, to achieve a more positive impact on poverty alleviation, GNAEP has reviewed its strategies in order to develop more profitable aquaculture options suited to the local context.
GNAEP has identified integrated rice-prawn and carp-prawn pond polyculture systems as the most viable options for raising incomes in the low-lying rice fields and small ponds characteristic of the area. The success of the rice-prawn farming systems of the southwest part of Bangladesh (the Greater Khulna district) also acted as an example for Greater Noakhali district. However, prawn farming has traditionally encountered problems in Bangladesh , affecting the scale of adoption and sustainability of the farming systems, especially for the small-scale farmers. These problems are: scarcity of prawn seed; availability of feed; access to market; and credit support.
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Prawn farming in Bangladesh traditionally developed based on Post Larvae (PL) caught from wild sources. The wild catch of PL has been more or less the same over the last few years but demand has increased due to expansion of prawn farms. Meanwhile the supply of PL from hatcheries has been static. Thus the price of PL has increased around 50%, but the price of prawn has not increased, squeezing the farmers' profit margins. |
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A second problem in new prawn farming is the supply of cheap feed. The profitability of prawn farming mainly depends on controlling the production cost, of which feed constitutes around 40-45% of the total. Farmers have a very positive attitude towards using home made feed, but the cost of feed ingredients, especially fish meal or dried fish, is high and the quality is often poor. Rising costs of inputs comparative to the virtually stable price of prawn again decreases the net return from prawn farming. |
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Almost all the prawn produced in Bangladesh is exported to the international markets. However, access to international markets is becoming more difficult for Bangladesh., since international buyers have raised questions about the quality of prawn/shrimp produced in the country. Competition among prawn producing countries in the international market is a big threat for Bangladesh . The need to ensure a quality product for export is another challenge for the country, which needs to be addressed in order to ensure a profitable return for the farmers. |
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Prawn farming requires also considerable amounts of initial investment for plot configuration and for stocking. Many poorer farmers do not have the capital required to invest and take high interest loans from local moneylenders or sell productive assets in order to do so. This depletion of assets increases household vulnerability exposing small farmers to higher risks. Experience indicates that without the financial support in the initial year, it is difficult for poor farmers to undertake prawn farming. |
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