In a land-scarce country such as Bangladesh where there is an urgent and ever-pressing need to adequately provide its burgeoning population with food, clothing and shelter as well as employment, tremendous pressures exist to cultivate the land intensively. But there is only so much one can do to cultivate the land, especially now that arable land is scarce and increasingly being encroached by urban and industrial development. With abundant water resources which have largely been “tamed” in recent years, attention should and can now be turned to cultivate these waters. Just as land cultivation preceded it, water cultivation is the next production frontier. Technology is already there to do so.
Combined with its vast human resources which can be trained in the appropriate skills, and providing them with the necessary “capital complements”, the Bangladesh fisheries sector can be made to be one of the engines to drive the economy of the country. This can be accomplished through rational sectoral and investment planning and management.
In 1986, for instance, fisheries only contributed about 3.5 % to the national GDP or Tk16.87 billion equivalent to US$0.5 billion. Last year, it rose to 6 %. In the last few years, fisheries is already the third largest foreign exchange earner (approximately 12–14 % of export earnings) for the national treasury after jute and garment. This sector can contribute even more if a well-planned development strategy and programme are carried out. In this respect, the government is already committed to such an economic development thrust.
For Bangladesh, the government clearly views the fisheries sector as being capable of providing fish (protein-rich food) for domestic consumption, exports to earn the much needed hard currency, employment to absorb the growing labour force, and income to improve the standards of living of the people.
Fisheries, especially aquaculture is one of the fastest growing economic subsectors in many developing countries like Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, just to name a few. This is also true in Bangladesh. Aquaculture's economic and financial viability and profitability have been demonstrated over and over again. Even under Bangladeshi conditions. In fact, of all the country's fisheries subsectors, aquaculture is the only subsector which has registered a consistent positive growth rate, ranging from 2.8 to 16.9 % with a five-year average of 9.3 %.
For example, Nuruzzaman (1990a and 1990b) has reported that the profit per unit weight of product and profit per unit area respectively can be 4–6 and 7–10 times higher in fish culture than in rice, wheat or millet production. Compared to jute which is the country's main agricultural commodity and export earner, fish and shrimp are clearly more profitable. Fish export is now ranked third after jute and garment. Before too long, fisheries would become the main export earner for the country. At present, its export accounts for about Tk5 billion (US$14.5 million) or 12 % of total export earnings.
Even though the export of garment is ranked second to the export of jute, the domestic resource cost of garment is not favourable for the national economy. Out of the export revenue of Tk16 billion from garment, close to 75 % of this value is paid out for the imports of fabrics and accessories. That is to say, the foreign content of the local garment industry is high. Although fisheries enjoys a comparative advantage vis-a-vis jute and garment due to its more favourable domestic and foreign resource cost differential, its development is still lagging behind. Fisheries development in Bangladesh is yet to take off.
Therefore, instead of lamenting the loss of extensive water bodies for fish production to agriculture by land reclamation of inundated low-lying areas, in particular from wild fisheries recruitment due to the massive earth works in taming the country's waters through the construction of embankments, levees, dykes and polders, these new water development projects present new and improved opportunities for planned and managed fisheries production and development.
This is because for the first time the waters are now amenable to control and management. That is, during the dry season from October to April, the water levels within these flood control embankments can be maintained at higher than normal levels. And then, during the monsoon season from May to September, the excess water can be drained out by pumping. These are new opportunities for greatly increased fish production to be capitalised upon. Under the old water regime with its severe floods and loss of lives and properties, fisheries production is mainly dependent on wild fisheries which is already under intense fishing pressures and production and productivity are falling.
Bangladesh fisheries, including even its shrimp fisheries remains competitive in the world market. It can even be more competitive if greater efforts are made to increase its overall technical and economic efficiencies. This can partly be effected through the on-going effort at strengthening the institutional and manpower capability of the Department of Fisheries and the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock in planning, executing and implementing, monitoring and evaluation of fisheries programmes and projects.
Structural limitations or weaknesses of the fisheries sector should also be examined with a view to remove or rectify them through either enabling policy or government incentives and assistance. In this respect, valuable assistance through externally-supported projects are being provided to look into the reorganisation of the various fisheries institutions in the country to strengthen their services to their clientele. One of these is the enforcement capability of the Department of Fisheries in fisheries management, regulation and conservation.
Such reorganisation and restructuring to streamline the roles, functions and responsibilities of the fisheries institutions and sector will go a long way in removing many of the inherent structural weaknesses and the multiplicity of control and administration, organisation conflicts and delays in decisionmaking and project implementation of these government institutions, including para-government bodies.
Sectoral planning and development for fisheries should not be carried out in a vacuum. Nor once a year or every five-year cycle. The close linkages and interdependence between and among the different sectors of the national economy and the latter with the regional/international economy must not be overlooked. The same is true for fisheries institutions working toward the common goal of the fisheries sector.
In this respect, the government should immediately review and evaluate the existing linkages and working relationships between and among the various government and non-government fisheries educational, research, training, extension and development institutions in the country. Although institutional linkages are provided for and quite clear, it is widely known that very little coordination is taking place between and among them, let alone cooperation and collaboration to benefit the sector and the national economy as a whole.
As human resource development holds the key to the future of the country's growth and economic prosperity, a comprehensive master plan for training needs to be developed at the sectoral level to better prepare and equip the fisheries institutions with the necessary trained and skilled manpower to carry out their work efficiently. Gross inefficiencies are found in the government service for fisheries from the pre- to the post-harvest levels. No or little progress will be made until and unless such government inefficiencies are removed.
Thus, having contributed significantly to the country's economy and welfare as far as national income, employment and labour absorption, nutrition and health, exports and hard currency earnings in the past and at present, the fisheries sector can be planned to assume even greater prominence in its traditional role and place in the country's economy in the years to come. This is a logical extension and development given the sector's past performance and its projected role in the future.
The fisheries sector having undergone 3 five-year development plans and 1 two-year plan with public sector expenditures and investments from Tk485 million in the FFYP (1973–1978) to Tk1, 743 million in SFYP (1980–1985), to Tk3,500 million in TFYP (1985–1990) to Tk7,500 million in FFYP (1990–1995), the expected future role and contribution of the sector in national economic planning and development is very clear.
In spite of severe constraints faced by the sector, national fish output has increased from 754,000 tons in 1983/1984 to 841,000 tons in 1988/1989. Even so, much more remain and can be done to boost the sector's contributions and performance in the future.
The projected role expected of fisheries is especially promising and encouraging as recent analysis of the demand for fish has shown that the income elasticity of demand for fish to be very positive. At an income elasticity of demand for fish of 1.2, this augurs well for the sector. Fish purchase is not only income elastic, implying that its consumption will increase with income increases but is also found to be quite price elastic. From this, it is very clear that fish and fisheries not only has a definite domestic market base, it also enjoys an expanding overseas market.
Recognising that past performance of the sector has not been up to the government's expectation due in part to the lack of management capabilities in project implementation and management, the government has embarked on strengthening the management capacities of the fisheries sector, especially the Department of Fisheries which has the national mandate to develop and manage the country's fisheries and aquatic resources.
Unlike in the past where fisheries development is undertaken on a project basis, the new approach is to develop and manage the fisheries on a sectorwide basis as well as to focus on target group-based planning approach. This new approach is reflected in the greater coordination and collaboration between and among the different development partner agencies/countries. As a result, there will be less problems of duplication or overlapping and working at cross-purposes which are counter-productive. In fact, some duplication or overlapping is not necessarily bad.
The main thrusts of the government's public expenditure programmes in fisheries are embodied in two major externally-supported fisheries projects: IDA/World Bank Third Fisheries Project and Asian Development Bank Second Aquaculture Project. These two main projects and other fisheries investments are now consolidated under the new Flood Action Plan put together in close consultation with the international development agency/country partners.
To improve the performance of the sector, the government will support a sectoral development process by strengthening sectoral institutions as well as emphasising management-oriented fisheries technical capability.
It is in recognition of these emerging patterns and trends in bankable investment opportunities and constraints, past and present performance of the national economy in general and the fisheries economy in particular that the Government of Bangladesh has singled out fisheries as the thrust sector which will drive the country's economic growth in the future, among others. Aware that there exists certain inherent limitations of the government's manpower and institutional capabilities in meeting the enormous challenges and opportunities (the government has programmed for fisheries), the government seeks to strengthen and build the Department of Fisheries' capabilities in the following programme areas:
Policy Formulation
Sectoral Planning and Project Analysis
Monitoring and Evaluation
Manpower and Training
Fish Hatchery
Integrated Fish Farming
Extension
Socioeconomics
Backed by a working Management Information System (MIS) for fisheries planning which is being set up in the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and the Department of Fisheries, sectoral planning in the future will be based on a strong data base. Project design and formulation will also be greatly improved as more and reliable data and information, especially on the socioeconomic aspects of the target groups become available. Poor project design has partly been attributed as one of the causes of poor project performance.
Last but not least, it is strongly recommended that the government takes an incremental approach to fisheries planning, realistic target projections for demand, investments and production. In the final analysis, the people of Bangladesh themselves have to control and manage their own destiny.
