The basis of sustainable economic development and growth in the future will be heavily dictated by not only efficient resource system productivity, but increasingly resource system stability, sustainability, environmental integrity and equitability. These can be assured through the development of more knowledge-intensive systems of production where multidisciplinary skills (including technical and managerial skills) and management will play an even bigger role.
In a poor country like Bangladesh where:
aa. nearly 70 % of the producers operate at or below the subsistence level of production,
bb. marketable surplus after meeting family and household consumption needs is low or non-existent which arises from #aa,
cc. many subsistence producers are actually net food buyers because their output is low which results from #aa and bb,
dd. per capita income of about US$200/year results in low purchasing power and therefore low effective demand for products, goods and services,
ee. income inequalities are not only wide but widespread,
ff. more than 40 % of the population, especially in the rural areas consume calories at or below the minimum nutritional requirements,
gg. land, in particular arable land is scarce and
hh. much of its vast aquatic resources are underutilised,
concerns on resource allocation efficiency are economically sound. However, it is not enough to be only concerned with allocative efficiency (see previous 3 five-year plans, 1 two-year plan and the present Fourth Five Year Plan). Equally as important, if not more so are concerns on distributional efficiency.
Along this line, government effort must be immediately directed to slowly but systematically reduce such income inequalities and thus increase the purchasing power of the people. With greater effective demand in the population, economic development programmes will have a higher probability of success. It is mainly due to the people's lack of purchasing power and effective demand which have discouraged greater investment and held back the greater utilisation of the country's resources and employment of its labour force. Productive capacity of resources is only build up and utilised through investment.
This general policy statement constitutes and sums up the broad overview of the country's development strategy which deserves and needs to be closely examined in the design and formulation of future plans. The present plan has not adequately addressed this aspect. In the remaining part of this chapter, new insights and thoughts are given to the present and future strategies in economic development planning.
It remains unclear why senior fisheries policy-makers and planners still choose to emphasize inland open water fisheries through massive stocking of fingerlings when the returns from such investments are not yet economically or financially assessed. Its impact is at best very marginal and even this is doubtful given past experience.
Aquaculture in all its forms with impressive growth rates, ranging from 5–10 % and even higher in some countries is being passed over in favour of artificial stocking or liberation of fish in inland open waters.
That historically, inland open water capture fisheries has supplied more than 50 % of the total national fish landing should not have a direct and full bearing on mapping out government strategy and approach to future fisheries investment planning. In fact, this source of fish supply has been declining from 63 % in 1983/1984 to 51 % in 1988/1989 or a decline of 12 % over 5 years. Preliminary trend analysis shows that it will continue to decline.
It is recommended that the government's main development thrust should be to actively promote aquaculture and management of fisheries in open waters and the importance of fisheries law and regulation enforcement for stock conservation. The latter can include artificial stocking of inland open waters. This basic strategy should form the crux of fisheries development planning for the country. Open water stocking or liberation can be an integral component of this programme thrust but not the main focus.
Discussions on developing inland (open water) fisheries:
“through effective management and conservation measures … biological management and fish habitat conservation practices would be strictly observed … (through) rigorous implementation of fish protection and conservation act, establishment of fish sanctuaries, strict enforcement of the ban on jatka (hilsa fingerlings) catch during February-April, heavy penalisation to the users of current jal (net) and the imposition of penalty on the dumping of untreated and harmful industrial wastes into any open water system”,
while commendable in their details, are silent on the enforcement capabilities of the Department of Fisheries. In fact, the implementation and enforcement of such measures in and of itself is a big undertaking requiring large investment.
While the strategy is well-conceived, little is planned on building up the required enforcement capability and ways of overcoming problems arising from strict enforcement and imposition of penalty. Enforcement of fisheries management measures which are normally restrictive, and thus can limit and curtail the production behaviour of the fishermen is made doubly more complicated in an overcrowded fisheries with declining CPUE and stock productivity where the majority of the close to 11 million fishermen eke out a daily hand-to-mouth existence.
Being a poor country with more than 80 % of its population living below the national poverty threshold of Tk2, 350 per capita per year or a dhal or lentil equivalent of 84–90 kg/capita/year or about 230–250 gm/day, a large segment of the rural population has to forage and gather food on a daily basis. Confronted with smallscale fishermen violating such fisheries management and conservation laws and regulations, enforcement officials face a dilemma which is at once difficult to resolve. Living on the margin as these fishermen do, how does one penalise these violators who have literally no other alternative means of livelihood ?
In addition to fisheries law enforcement, it requires a simultaneous programme on massive public education to create awareness among the people on the need to manage the country's fisheries resources on a sustainable yield basis. By lending their support in helping to manage the fisheries, the population will stand to benefit in the long run by reducing waste because landing young and gravid brood fish is wasteful. There are already such provisions in the national fisheries statutes.
Serious reality gaps exist in fisheries planning in Bangladesh. It is also overly ambitious in setting priorities, targets and time frame in achieving them. Little or no consideration is given to past experience and performance of the sector even though statistical analysis showed that the higher output target desired by the government is not attainable just yet, especially given the constraints enumerated earlier. More specifically, simple time trend analysis suggested that the 1.2 million ton output target planned for the FFYP cannot be attained based on the performance of the sector since 1984 or even earlier.
The time trend analysis showed that only a projected output of 1 million ton is likely given the existing trend of production. Further, the available national resources and capabilities like trained manpower, labour force skill or capability as well as institutional capacity to implement the Plan would not be able to support the higher target. The higher target requires a quantum leap of about 45% from the present level of output of 841,000 tons.
Thus, fisheries planning in Bangladesh is frequently idealistic with reality being vaguely brought into the planning process. It has not been able to come to terms with a more gradual phase-by-phase or incremental approach to planning in general and fisheries sectoral planning in particular. As a rule, quantum leaps in targets or performance are expected. This is partly because, given the severity of the problems faced by the country, policy-makers and planners want the targets set out to be achieved in the proposed time frame they have given themselves. Every idea or potential and opportunity is a priority. A quick-fix approach to problems, if you will.
It is recommended that a more realistic down-to-earth approach to planning be taken. An incremental step-by-step approach is clearly preferred over an impractical one given the resource, institutional and socioeconomic constraints faced by the country.
More fundamentally, planning in Bangladesh is still carried out sector by sector. Inter-sectoral linkages, interdependence and impact are rarely, if ever taken into consideration in drawing up national five-year plans. In a mixed capitalistic free enterprise economy such as found in this country, market and non-market forces in the form of price and non-price signals invariably influence and impinge on each and every sector of the national economy. In other words, no sector is completely insulated from events either of an economic or non-economic nature happening in the other sector(s) of the national economy. Even events in the fisheries sector of another country will sooner or later affect or reverberate to the other national economies in general and to the related sectors in particular. The world economy, let alone the national economy is now increasingly interdependent, especially through trade.
Two excellent illustrations will provide convincing evidence on the critical need to take into account the impact of inter-sectoral linkages. The first involves the competing and sometimes conflicting demand for inputs like fish meal for livestock formulated feed production (poultry, fish and shrimp among others), land, water, labour, fertilizers for agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture and other rural industries. The second which is quite related to the first is the complexities of multi-resource use conflicts, giving rise to pecuniary and non-pecuniary externalities intra-and inter-sectorally.
It is beyond the scope of this analysis to elaborate on them here. Suffice to say that planning cannot be carried out in a vacuum. The impact of activities in the fisheries sector on other sectors and vice-versa have to be closely examined and responded to to enable the proper functioning of the plan and achievement of the targets. Even then, many unforeseen economic circumstances happening within the country or outside such as the changing terms of trade, devaluation and exchange rate fluctuation will complicate the attainment of planned targets.
To minimise problems on the lack of achievement of planned targets and carryover projects, a more down-to-earth plan should be envisaged so as to overcome "spillover" frustrations. Such "spill-over" projects, an inaptly used terminology to refer to uncompleted projects, interfere with or jam up long-term forward planning. New planned initiatives and activities have to be put off or shelved, thus causing further delay in the realisation of target outputs and benefits.
These have been going on since the First Five Year Plan, started in 1973. Delays build up resulting in more failures. Valuable lessons can be learned from such past failures so that the same mistakes are not repeated. It is in this light that this analysis on the potentials for and constraints to expanded fish production is presented.
According to the FFYP (1990-1995), fisheries is considered a "thrust" sector for the next decade 1990-2000. The Tk1,125 crore budget requested and Tk750 crore (67%) finally allocated, however does reflect this new development thrust and orientation, much less in bold innovative project ideas. Projects are afterall the pivot and building block of a plan. That is, in addition to the carry-over projects, new projects included in the next plan are more or less similar to those which traditionally have been undertaken in the previous plans.
There seems to be a lack of emphasis on innovative ideas like deep water fish culture, integrated fish farming, pen and cage culture, seafarming, provision of alternative fish or non-fish related employment or income-generating opportunities to attract fishermen out of the overcrowded artisanal fisheries, fish habitat improvement and aggregating devices at the pre-harvest level and improved primary handling of fish like salting and drying, icing, chilling and freezing, and secondary processing of high value and value-added products like surimi manufacture and fish canning at the post-harvest level.
Many of these activities can be designed on a group farming basis as well as on a contract farming arrangement. With advanced planning and careful implementation, it is conceivable that many of the 85,650 villages scattered all across the country can be appropriately organised as fish production units. Even though these villagers have limited access to or little or no command over the available resources, they can be mobilised and organised if they can be provided with the necessary training and government assistance. The government should give serious consideration to this recommendation.
Fisheries policies, development strategies and measures on the exploitation, conservation and management of fisheries resources, socioeconomic upliftment of fishing and fish farming communities, and broad categories of project proposals as re-stated or spelled out in the next plan invariably do not coincide with grassroot reality. No allowance seems to be given to how difficult and complex it will be to successfully implement the proposed projects as contained in the FFYP, let alone achieve the targets. See for example the following typical FFYP activities for fisheries.
Planned
In order to support the massive open water stocking programme and the greatly expanded aquaculture plan as proposed, an extremely well-concerted system of largescale hatchling production and nursery rearing of adequate carp fingerlings of pre-planned species combination will be given serious attention (p 14). … Each District will produce hatchlings adequate for all the waters under its command, or a deficit district will import hatchlings from a surplus zone. Matching with the fingerling need of a Union, suitable water bodies in the form of ponds, roadside ditches, irrigation canals will be promptly identified and clearly assigned to the task of fingerling production. … Strictly supervised credit projects for fingerling production will be introduced p 15).
Reality
As pointed out earlier (see page 66), wild seed still provides from 65–85 % of the total seed needed for aquaculture and open water stocking. For shrimp farming, it is entirely from Nature. Both the public and private shrimp hatcheries constructed so far have not been able to produce as planned or designed. This problem has been going on for almost a decade now. For inland open water stocking or liberation, they still have to be largely supplied from wild caught seed which have been nursed in fish seed multiplication farms.
Until recently, the country's 6 main fish hatcheries and 104 fish seed multiplication farms, including those in the private sector have not been able to produce and supply the seed required. Now that they are able to produce the fry of some commercially important species, another set of problems has surfaced.
According to a preliminary survey on the economics of seed production, it was found that it is not economical or profitable to produce fingerlings, especially advanced fingerlings. Operators of fish hatcheries and nurseries are not interested to produce such fingerlings for sale to the government for open water stocking. Advanced fingerlings are increasingly being recommended for such public water stocking because mortality is minimised or the rate of survival is higher (relative to the use of fry).
These hatchery/nursery operators prefer to produce only fry because the profit margin is better given the prevailing prices of fry and advanced fingerlings in the market. Besides, the production turnover for fry is faster compared to advanced fingerlings. At the same time, less risks are involved in producing fry than advanced fingerlings. Thus, unless the price for advanced fingerlings improves, its supply will not be forthcoming.
Thus, to sum up, the proposal to nurse and grow fingerlings in roadside ditches and such similarly situated water bodies is overly optimistic considering that even production in ponds where tenure and security are assured remains problematic.
Planned
Each Union having a fish culture potential will have a definite, fish culture development programme, a fish production target and a budget provision (p 27). … In order to ensure the best possible utilisation of the existing physical facilities and human resources, the Fisheries Research Institute, Department of Fisheries, Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation, Bangladesh Water Development Board and the universities will conduct wherever possible and appropriate collaborative research, surveys and studies for mutual benefits (p 21).
Reality
Much as this planning approach is desired, the Department of Fisheries is presently not adequately organised to carry out such a planning and implementing procedure even at the national level, let alone at the Union level. Nor is it in a position to do so for some time to come. It will take alot of effort, professional skill and commitment before this bottom-up planning procedure will take roots. Further, there is also not enough broad-based consultation taking place in the formulation of the fisheries sectoral plan. As far as it can be ascertained, the views of the private sector have also not been sufficiently sought in plan formulation.
Collaboration between and among institutions and individual scientists with similar interests is desirable because it is not only cost-effective but their impact is far-reaching. But in reality, considerable institutional and individual rivalry, jealousy and tension exist. Conditions in Bangladesh are no different too. While some institutional rivalry is healthy, institutional tension and jealousy is counter-productive. Although lip service is given to the desirability of working together, in reality very little is taking place. Even published reports are hardly circulated and shared between and among the different institutions, let alone coordinating their activities. It is thus not too realistic to expect such collaboration to take place at present.
Planned
Inland open water fisheries will be developed through effective management and conservation measures of riverine fisheries and floodplains. Massive artificial stocking of open waters such as rivers, flood lands, beels, baors and lakes with fish fingerlings will be done and biological management and fish habitat conservation practices would be strictly observed. Selected species to be stocked will include Chinese and Indian carps as well as magur, koi, punti, golda shrimp, etc (p 10). …
The protection and conservation measures will include, among others: i) rigorous implementation of fish protection and conservation act, ii) establishment of fish sanctuaries, iii) strict enforcement of the ban on jhatka or hilsa fingerlings catch during February-April, iv) heavy penalisation to the users of current jal or net, v) imposition of penalty on the industrial dumping of untreated and harmful industrial wastes into any open water system (p 11). …
In order to initiate proper management of fisheries resources, emphasis would be given on (sic) promulgation and proper execution of adequate fish conservation laws through revision of existing laws on the basis of biological studies of commercial fish species. In addition, enforcement of laws relating to treatment of wastes would be emphasized for regulation of harmful discharge of agrochemicals and industrial effluence into the water systems (p 10).
Reality
Again, there exists a certain amount of inconsistency and reality gap in the approach and activities proposed. Fish output usually cannot be expected to increase to any significant degree in the initial years of a good fisheries management and conservation programme (especially when it is strictly enforced). The sectoral plan similarly fails to take into account the existing lack of capability of the government in general and the Department of Fisheries in particular to enforce the rules and regulations governing the exploitation of the country's fisheries resources.
Enforcement is made especially even more difficult in an over-exploited resource setting where the fishermen dependent on it are poor, many eking a hand-to-mouth existence. Besides, of the species proposed to be stocked in open waters, how many of these species can be artificially bred in large numbers ? Recall the fry/fingerling supply shortfall of about 37 % cited elsewhere in this study. Further, the type of support services as envisaged in the sectoral plan are not now adequate nor will they be in the foreseeable future.
Planned
… planned aquaculture will be introduced into a new area of 40,000 ha consisting of irrigation canals, roadside ditches, low-lying padi fields enclosed within flood control dykes or rural roads, and the low-lying areas in and around the cities and towns (p 12).
Reality
Unlike privately-owned fish ponds, irrigation and drainage canals and roadside ditches are in the public domain. In a country where the government so far lacks the institutional capability to mobilise and organise rural people into groups for community-oriented and "shared-responsibility" production activities as these planned aquaculture activities in public waters are, it is not realistic to expect that much can be accomplished without proper leadership and guidance on a continuing basis.
Besides, unlike in other countries, Bangladesh has little or no tradition and experience in shared-responsibility community-oriented activities like gotong-royong in Indonesia and Malaysia. Problems related to the sharing of work responsibility, input cost and harvest have to be resolved and worked out early on to sustain group interests and participation.
Planned
The smallscale fishing sector with its present 95 % contribution to total marine fish landing, much better rate of economic return, higher employment opportunities and its potential capacity for further vertical and horizontal expansion will receive more attention than industrial fishing. Introduction of diversified and more effective fishing gears and equipping selected types of boats with appropriate engines will receive priority so as to enable the smallscale sector to more effectively exploit the fish and shrimp within the 40 m depth zone (p 16). … The industrial shrimp trawler operators will be induced to save the low-priced by-catch of the shrimp trawls by offering them an incentive price for the by-catch. Steps will be taken to process the trash fish into nutritious and high-priced human food (p 17).
Reality
Overcrowding and to an extent over-capitalisation of the smallscale fishing subsector are two main causes of declining catch per unit effort (cpue) of smallscale marine fishing. Although the smallscale fisheries shows rates of growth in fish catch of 17 % between 1983/84 and 1984/85, 12 % between 1984/85 and 1985/86, 5 % between 1985/86 and 1986/87, 6 % between 1986/87 and 1987/88 and 2 % between 1987/88 and 1988/89, the growth rates are rapidly declining. This implies that the source of growth is from catch increases due to the steadily growing number of boats and fishermen and not from productivity gains per unit of effort.
In 1976/77, there were only 26 trawlers and 1,050 other boats. But by 1985/86, there were 45 trawlers and 9,696 other boats. The latter represented almost a tenfold increase in the fishing fleet size and capacity. Today, there are 52 trawlers and an estimated 17,331 other boats. Of the latter boat category, only a fifth or 3,317 boats is motorised; the others are non-motorised country boats. These boats are either gill net, trammel net, set bag net or longline boats, fishing in coastal waters or close to the shore (in sight of the land). They do not fish very far off-shore as they are not motorised and very seaworthy, usually fishing within the 12-mile limit.
Between 1976/77 and 1985/86, the number of fishermen increased by 45 %: 16.3 % for inland open water fishermen and 130 % in the case of marine fishermen (Rubbi, 1990). At present, there are already at least 1.2 million full-time fishermen in the smallscale fisheries sector and another 10 million or so fishing either parttime or on a subsistence basis. As a result of this, the catch per unit of effort of smallscale fisheries based on the latest available estimation is about 167 kg/boat/day.
As is quite clear from the above, further expansion of the smallscale marine fisheries, in particular providing them with either outboard or inboard engines to motorise their boats as well as with more effective fishing gear would not be in the long term interests of the fishermen nor of the resource base. This is especially so as long as entry into the fisheries is open and unrestricted/unlimited (as is the case with common property open access resources). Fish catch may increase initially at the aggregate but in the long run the cpue will fall. Instead, there is a real need to rationalise the fisheries urgently by attracting redundant fishermen out of the fisheries.
It is therefore strongly recommended that serious effort be immediately undertaken to study and propose measures to rationalise the marine fisheries subsector with a view to attract them out of the fisheries by providing them with alternative fishing or nonfishing related income-generating or employment opportunities.
As alluded to above, the “much better rate of economic return, higher employment opportunities and its potential capacity for further vertical and horizontal expansion” features or perceived advantages of the smallscale as opposed to the industrial subsector of the fisheries are not available nor do they exist in reality. The “much better rate of economic return” as reported is the result of not using inflation-adjusted or deflated value for the price of fish in the calculation of the costs and returns of smallscale fishing operations. Nor are certain costs like family labour taken into account, let alone resource depletion cost.
Planned
Measures will also be taken to provide security of marine fishing boats, equipment, gear and fish of the fisherfolks by introducing a special insurance project at a reasonable premium. Each boat will compulsorily keep the standard life saving equipment. Sea piracy will be handled sternly. … Fishing and fish farming materials and equipment will be imported and distributed through the fisherfolks societies so that the users get the necessary items at the lowest costs (p 18). … To give greater emphasis for development of this sector, a separate Fisheries Bank may be created or the Krishi Bank may open separate windows for disbursing fisheries credit in selected places (p 19).
In closing, many other instances of reality gaps in planning and implementation can be cited but suffice to say that these deficiencies have to be recognised and targets and priorities correspondingly revised … downward !! Little or no concern seems to be given to priority setting, all “ideas and projects” are seen as equally important. The end result is that not only are targets not attained in the time frame prescribed, many projects are not completed and have to be carried over to the next plan. It is not necessary to belabour this point further.
Government policies which tend to limit opportunities for economic advancement to the few well-to-do and elite members of the rural communities at the expense of the vast majority of the population who live at the margin should be reviewed and changed accordingly. The policies as set out by the government may not be intended as such but in implementing them, the poor are usually shut out from the available opportunities. The New Fisheries Management Policy (NFMP) enacted in 1986 is a good case in point. Other similar policies should likewise be revised to provide more opportunities to the poor and landless.
The number of landless people has increased from 15–20 % in the 1950s and 1960s to more than 40 % today. This implies that wealth and asset (e.g land) are increasingly being concentrated in less and less number of people. The upshot of which is that the rich get more wealthy and the poor even worse off than before. Unemployment is now estimated at more than 30 % of the active adult population. This is a case for developing improved strategy in eradicating poverty, employment creation and labour absorption. It calls for careful planning, keeping the poor in mind of any proposed changes to be brought about which will directly benefit them. In other words, more emphasis should be directed to target group-based planning instead of sector-based planning.
Like in other countries, fisheries manpower planning in Bangladesh has also not been given the attention it merits. Past manpower planning has largely been ad-hoc with no clear long-term thrust and direction. The lack of manpower planning can be traced to the lack of a clear vision and policy on the role of the sector in national development. The Department of Fisheries, its leadership and staff recruited to service the sector had grown to its present size without real input in long-term manpower planning. In other words, staff was hired or position filled when the need arose and the budget allowed such hiring. The development and management requirements of the sector/resource base as an integral component of the national economy was also not considered in such planning.
The proposed reorganisation and restructuring of the Department of Fisheries would include, among others the establishment of a strong Planning Unit under the Development Division (Everett, et al, 1985). This Planning Unit will function as the “think-tank” of the Department with direct links to the Planning Commission and external development partner countries and agencies. This “think-tank” will be directly responsible in mapping out future development strategies for fisheries development and fisheries investment planning for the country.
Continuous training and upgrading of staff is not only necessary but mandatory for the country as staff competence within the Department relies heavily on adequate and timely training. Reiterating Everett and associates' findings concerning the lack or inadequate career planning and development, the government should remedy this personnel management shortcoming as early as possible to improve work performance, efficiency, motivation and dedication.
More fundamentally, the government has until now overlooked a sound yet highly strategic approach to rural development and economic upliftment of the people which other countries have successfully employed in their development planning. Reference is here made to the well-tested development strategy to train and support NOT only the country's farmers, fishermen, fish farmers, artisans and similar workmen, including even landless labourers but also government servants as managers and entrepreneurs.
By and large, most Bangladeshi producers and civil servants lack managerial and entrepreneurial skills and abilities. This is because in disseminating new technology and research results, government extension activities miss the opportunity to develop such skills and abilities in their target clientele. As a future strategy, the government should look into this investment in human resource development.
Work place, job performance and professionalism can also be greatly improved by not only matching staff qualification, background, experience and most importantly interests with the job to be performed but also to match them with changing development objectives, thrusts and direction of future fisheries development.
Next, the compensation and reward scheme of the Department of Fisheries and Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock as well as the image of fisheries as a vocation or profession is not sufficiently attractive to draw the best talent into the sector. The last time the salary structure, in particular the level or scale and the rate of emolument was examined was after Liberation in 1973. Since then, periodic adjustments to reflect the prevailing cost of living conditions was carried out in 1977 and 1985.
These periodic adjustments do not do enough to compensate the spiralling cost increases or inflationary pressures. At any rate, as soon as or even before the government announces any wage adjustment, prices in the local market are sure to go up. It should be mentioned that the salary structure as found in the civil service is quite sound. It is the salary scale which is very low.
As no changes to the existing government pay scale is in the offing in the foreseeable future and recognising that government salaries and wages have not kept up with the cost of living indices, the government is encouraged to consider allowing the use of government ponds in the fish seed multiplication farms and experimental stations for fish production (especially fish seed) to generate revenues to supplement the salaries and wages of the personnel of the Department of Fisheries and Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. These ponds are not now fully and efficiently utilised. For this purpose, an appropriate fish production and supplemental wage plan can be devised and worked out. Even jalmahals can be brought under this scheme.
To encourage greater production of fish, the country's extension service definitely has to be streamlined and strengthened. Greater emphasis has to be placed on managerial and management training for the fishermen and fish farmers. Along this line, financial and economic training, in particular Farm Management and Production Economics training should be introduced at the earliest possible time.
Fishing and fish farming should no longer be viewed as a way of life and means of subsistence but rather a business and commercial proposition. Technology is no longer the constraint it used to be as can be seen below. Markets, reasonable and equitable returns and prices are. Producers are economically rational and do respond to market and price signals and would bring forth more and greater production if and when they feel they are adequately rewarded and compensated for their effort, labour and toil. As rational decision-makers, they are naturally motivated by profit and a fair return to their labour, management and entrepreneurship.
Marr and associates (Marr, et al, 1985) succinctly pointed out that the expected 60 % incremental growth in the country's fish output from the present level of about 800,000 tons to more than 1.3 million tons of fish will come from the application of known available technology within the country or technology already developed and in use elsewhere like in Thailand and Indonesia.
There is thus clearly no need to expend scarce national resources and money on re-inventing the wheel as certain fisheries institutions in the country are engaged in at present. The available technology can be quickly adapted, disseminated and adopted by the people.
The aquaculture technology shown below has been proven to work, notably in Thailand.
Table 9. Thai Freshwater Aquaculture Technology
| Species | Culture System | Fertilisation | Feeding Regime | Ex-Farm Price (US$/Kg) | Production (Ton/Ha/Yr) |
| Tilapia | S-inten | Organic | Supplemen | 0.40–0.48 | 6.00 |
| Gouramy | S-inten | Organic | - | 0.40–0.48 | 0.75 |
| Clarias | Inten | - | Complete | 1.00–1.20 | 100–120 |
| Snakehead | Inten | - | Trashfish | 1.40–1.60 | 70–150 |
| Pangasius | S-inten | Organic | Supplemen | 0.36–0.44 | 6–8 |
Source: Boonyaratpalin and Akiyama, 1989
[Note: S-inten is semi-intensive and Inten is intensive]
While national (in-house or in-country) capability in basic and applied research and technology development and packaging are certainly useful, they are not only prohibitively costly to support but very often not entirely necessary. Technology packages such as those shown for freshwater aquaculture in Table 9 above are already available in the region. All that is required is adaptation and modification of these packages to suit local conditions.
Japan became an economic power not by investing huge sums of money on basic and applied research but on human resource development and selective manpower training, and adapting and refining research findings and results from advanced countries. A good indicator of Japanese economic planning strategy is as follows: for every one attorney or lawyer in America, there are 100 engineers in Japan. It is only now, after it has developed a market niche for its products overseas that the country is beginning to allocate some money for basic and applied research.
It is therefore in Bangladesh's interests not to re-invent the wheel. Such “research” financial allocation can be profitably used in adapting or refining available technology packages. More field trials or on-farm research and development and extension should be carried out. Technology is not a problem. The problem lies in its dissemination and implementation … the human dimension or human factor. In Bangladesh, research should be selectively undertaken and only when external sources cannot be tapped like for fish disease research.
Also, the need for continuing (external) technical assistance is essential for Bangladesh to fully develop its available potentials and opportunities and overcome its myriad constraints to higher production and development. Genetic selection and improvement of local fish stock is one such example in which external assistance would be invaluable. Although fish genetic works is well recognised as needed in the FFYP, in practice there is little or no such work being carried out in the country. This is yet another case of unrealistic mapping of local reality … desirable but not attainable for the time being due to lack of resources.
National experience in agricultural credit is extensive but repayment record or loan recovery is extremely low. The same situation prevails for fisheries credit. As a result, not only is the number of credit programmes but the volume of such credit are decreasing. The need for credit not only still exists but has even grown more acute, particularly among the impoverished fishermen and fish farmers.
As pointed out in the TFYP (1985–1990), credit are necessary for the expansion of fish production. There are two types of credit:
institutional
non-institutional
In Bangladesh, institutional credit is not popular compared to non-institutional credit. Over 60 % of the credit taken is of the non-institutional variety.
Its widespread use is due to the flexible nature of the credit extended, mainly in the form of unsecured loans and requires no supervision. It does not have lending requirements which the borrowers who are mainly poor and collateral-less have to meet and satisfy such as imposed by the institutional-type lending agency. Besides, borrowers also have to meet certain development goal set by the lending agency. But most of all, it is popular because there does not exist any viable alternative source of credit in their locality.
As for the other kind of credit, namely the institutional variety, the credit is conventionally channeled through the existing commercial banks with the aim of familiarising the rural people in the use of the services provided by these banks. But this has not worked out. Borrowers shun this source of credit either because they cannot meet the bureaucratic and lending requirements or alleged malpractices in loan disbursement.
This analysis proposes that part of such credit, that is the institutional credit, say 10–15 % be channeled through selected local middlemen who are known to extend such credit facilities to the rural people like fishermen and fish farmers. The use and involvement of such middlemen cuts down high overhead costs of loan administration. Besides, these middlemen are better able to enforce repayments as they are not only the members of the local community but also their sources of supply for food and production inputs. These middlemen can also continue to market the output of the borrowers as they have traditionally been doing.
The above proposal is yet untried and untested. It is bold, unconventional and innovative, even radical. The strategy is new and should be given a chance to be tried out. It can be either unsupervised or supervised credit; if supervised, the assistance of the local extension service or a similar body like a non-government organisation (NGO) will be needed. The credit to be extended can be either in cash or in kind (material input). Similarly, it can be either accompanied with or without technology. It is a radical concept whose time may have come.
This new strategy is being proposed because conventional credit either of the institutional or non-institutional variety has encountered many different problems and social acceptability. Fisheries loan disbursements have reportedly come to a halt because of problems associated with poor loan recovery and the lack of positive impact on the borrowers. In other words, borrowers have not benefited from such credit. This problem has persisted for a long time and has not been resolved till this day. The proposed strategy and approach described above is worth a try.
From the discussion above, it can be concluded that no or very few households in the country are able to save. Thus, attempts to mobilise savings would face great difficulties. Table 10 provides a partial picture of the pattern of rural indebtedness in the country. As the large majority of the population is poor and the fishermen and fish farmers are limited resource producers, the provision of credit is absolutely essential in realising the expected expanded output of fish.
Furthermore, with hindsight and lessons learned from the succesful Grameen Bank model, future fisheries credit programmes can also be planned, patterned and managed after the Grameen model. What is the Grameen Bank model ? Fisheries policy-makers and planners should make the time to study the model and adapt/modify it to suit the needs of the fishing and fish farming communities.
Table 10. Pattern of Rural Indebtedness
| Year | Households with Debts | Average Debts | Institution Credit (%) |
| 1956 | 68 % | Tk 181 | 4.9 % |
| 1965 | 49 % | Tk 265 | 11.9 % |
| 1968 | 71 % | Tk 146 | 28.2 % |
| 1970 | 75 % | Tk 398 | 40.0 % |
| 1982 | 56 % | Tk12551 | 52.1 % |
| Tk34442 | |||
| Tk12763 |
1 Rural Finance Credit Project
2 Other Institutions
3 Non-Institutional Sources
The Grameen Bank experience shows that no liberal credit policy is needed nor special concessions to be made to ensure the sucess of a credit programme. All that is asked for is for those implementing the credit programme to be fair and honest. As fish-ermen and fish farmers, they are not irrational nor incoherent. On the contrary, they do possess good business sense. Although many of them are illiterate, they know what a good business plan is when they see one.
Like all of us, they are interested to improve their social lot and economic standing and that of their children as well. In short, they ask that they not be exploited. This then is the essence of a workable credit model.
Initial effort undertaken by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock to mobilise savings from villagers in the Meghna-Dhonagoda Irrigation Project (MDIP) to carry out integrated fish-chicken-duck farming on a cooperative or group farming basis has been very encouraging. Beginning with 2 production units in 2 khas waters in early October 1990, there are presently at least 5 such integrated fish farms as of November 1990. According to Luqueman (1990, pers com), amounts ranging from Tk100–200 per villager or household can be quite easily mobilised as initial seed money to invest in such production activities. This implies that the government should step up effort to mobilise rural savings from the 65,000 villages found scattered throughout the country.
Even though the per capita income of the villagers is quite low, the effort at mobilising savings in the villages of MDIP cited above shows that there are untapped sources of funding, small though these may be. Nevertheless, they represent a source of funds to finance rural development activities - a truly private sector source ! This is a potential source of capital which has not been adequately tapped and mobilised for rural reconstruction.
The availability of such capital is especially welcome as the availability of government resources to finance development continues to diminish due to shortfalls in revenue collection. The Rural Development Training Institute at Khadimnagar, Sylhet has estimated that the average per capita combined savings and shares of farmers with the Bangladesh Rural Development Board is about Tk233. It is Tk197 for non-farming rural people (Rahman, 1990).
This assesment of the existence and availability of rural monies for savings is further confirmed by the rural savings statistics provided by the Post Office Savings Bank. The Post Office Savings Bank has been able to promote savings from Tk0.2763 billion in 1971 to Tk2.4494 billion in 1989.
More than other contributory factors, increased investment is clearly needed to support and underpin the projected incremental output of fish which the country badly needs. It is with this in mind that the government should immediately prepare and distribute both locally and overseas the INVESTMENT PROFILE of the different possible fisheries investment opportunities available in the country. These investment profiles will serve to attract the much needed private sector capital into the fisheries sector.
At present, the government only monitors and evaluates the performance of investment projects in terms of the level and rate of budgeted allocations being expended. Performance criteria and indicators used so far are, for instance: number of fingerlings released in open waters, number and locality of water bodies where they are released, number of upazilas involved, amount of money expended to date.
Little or no community impact assessment has been studied, let alone an in-depth detailed analysis on returns to investment, incidence of benefits or negative/adverse effects or damages, employment created and income structure changes, nutrition status and standards of living of the target groups since the projects are started and investments made.
In addition to the Investment Coordination Board, the Department of Fisheries should also establish a small Fisheries Information Centre to assist would-be investors and other businessmen with data, information, investment advice on the potentials, opportunities, feasibility reports, approximate capital investment requirements and cost and return analysis of different fisheries production, processing, marketing and international trade (export/import) opportunities available in the country.
