The major socioeconomic issues in inland capture fisheries are outlined below:
Absence of effective production/marketing cooperatives of fishermen.
Absence of institutional credit facilities.
Dependence of fishermen on traders, aratdars, village moneylenders, boat owners for loans at usurious rates of interest.
Loans of aratdars and traders are tied up with compulsory sell to them.
Dissatisfaction of fishermen about the existing system of sharing catch as renumeration in riverine fishing.
Lack of improvement in traditional method of fishing, dominance of non-mechanized boats in riverine fishing.
Lack of capacity to procure fishing inputs such as boats and nets from own financial resources.
Lack of preservation facilities resulting in spoilage/wastage particularly at time of bumper catch.
No insurance coverage for life and fishing equipments.
Prevalence of leasing-out system of waterbodies and creation of large number of intermediaries between first lessee and ultimate user, the fishermen.
Unlicensed fishing and use of destructive gear.
Increasing inflow of fishermen to the fishery versus gradual decline of production due to over-exploitation of fishery and decline of productivity.
Pollution resulting from use of agrochemicals and discharge of industrial effluent and resulting threat to the existence of fish resources.
The major socioeconomic issues in inland culture fisheries are listed below:
Prevalence of traditional method of pond fish culture.
Limited extension programme for motivation toward pond-fish culture.
Ponds are not specifically designed for fish culture and require physical improvements and regular maintenance.
joint ownership of the pond makes decision-making difficult especially when investments are needed for physical improvement of ponds.
Most ponds are owned by private operators who face the problems such as limited knowledge of aquaculture techniques, lack of quality seeds, lack of credit and high risks.
Multiple use of ponds (e.g. irrigation) interferes with fish culture (especially at the end of dry season, in the absence of tubewells).
Lack of credit facilities for investment in pond management and procurement of various fishing inputs. (According to DANIDA's estimate, the amount of credit needed for the farmer to operate is in the range of TK 250–300 per decimal of water area).
Inadequate supplies of fries and fingerlings. (Increase in supplies of fries and fingerlings are relatively capital intensive which would require credit.)
Hazards due to diseases (which can be partially and in some areas totally prevented through better management techniques).
Problem of poisoning and theft (partially due to multiple ownership problem).
Lack of marketing facilities resulting in lower revenue.
Negligible existence of integrated agriculture-aquaculture practice.
Extensive culture resulting in gradual reduction of cultivable land.
Lack of facilities to bring derelict ponds under fish culture.
In this section, major socioeconomic issues in marine fisheries are summarized:
Inadequate estimates of existing stock, number of fishermen and gears to sustain the fishery, maximum sustainable economic yield.
Limited number of identified fishing grounds.
fishing assets are costly and owned mostly by non-fishermen.
No insurance coverage for life and fishing equipments.
Non-existence of fishermen groups/cooperatives.
Pelagic resource remain mostly untapped.
Exploitation of deep sea resource is beyond the capacity of most of the small-scale fishermen.
Unlicensed and illegal fishing by domestic vessels and intrusion of foreign vessels.
Dissatisfaction about the ways income from marine fishery is shared.
Lack of facilities for expansion of domestic markets for marine species and development of marketing infrastructure: landing sites, wholesale fish markets, cold storage, ice factories, refrigerated vans and auction yard.
The problem of rubbery in the deep sea.
The following are the major socioeconomics issues in coastal fisheries:
Over-population of the coastal zone.
Low financial, social and educational status of the fishermen.
Lack of alternative income sources.
Low environmental awareness.
Accretion of land from the sea resulting in loss of fishing grounds and loss of livelihood for thousands of fishermen.
Most inhabitants below poverty line struggling to survive. For them health, nutrition, sanitation, water supply, soil fertility, cooking fuel, animal feed and house building materials are of day to day concerns.
Declining per capita fish consumption, reduced grazing land, water logging and salinity within polders, increase in soil and water salinity. Erosion of coastal area, over-exploitation of the resources, destruction of mangroves, water pollution by toxic wastes, heavy metals, declining nutritional status of the rural poor are some of the alarming socioeconomic issues.
Fishing communities face multiple problems involving social, economic, institutional, technical, infrastructural and even ethnic factors. Many of NGOs are already active supporting groups of fishermen and fish farmers to solve some of these problems in various parts of the country. encouraging effects can be seen in the performance of NGOs such as BRAC (Bangladesh Rural advancement Committee), BRDB (Bangladesh Rural Development Board), PROSHIKA and CARITAS in forming functional groups in fishing communities. The Production Employment Programme (PEP) and Rangpur & Dinajpur Rehabilitation Service (RDRS) operate under the umbrella of BRDB. NGOs typical projects include assisting small groups of displaced fishermen to restore and operate formerly derelict fish ponds on long term leases, assisting other groups to operate jalmahals by setting up their management systems and negotiating credit. Thus, NGOs' contribution to rural development is noteworthy in respect of increased supply of animal protein, employment, and upgrading of the socioeconomic status of rural women. However their involvement is constrained by shortages of trained manpower and limited funds and meanwhile many issues and problems persist:
The total catch is increasing but the catch per fishermen is decreasing. This is because the growth rate of fishermen's population is higher than that of fish production, and no effective resource management has been implemented either. Fishing is a seasonal activity in Bangladesh and alternative sources of livelihood are necessary but do not exist in most cases.
The ability to earn depends on the ownership of assets such as craft and gear. These are inequitably distributed due to social and economic imbalances. Many fishermen, therefore, depend on other people's assets for a livelihood.
Fishermen are socially isolated, disadvantage and low in caste. They lack political clout and organization. The infrastructure development benefits are not given to rural communities due to the lack of attention of the central government.
High demand and good prices for fish come from urban and export markets to which artisanal fishermen do not have direct access. Marketing is increasingly in the hands of the middlemen whose hold is more secure because they extend credit to fishermen. Lending money to artisanal fishermen is not attractive to banking institutions because of lack of security. Therefore, their usual creditors are middlemen who are familiar with local situation than banking agencies who stick to rules unsuited to fishermen. Because of the lack of adequate institutional credit facilities on reasonable terms, fisherfolks are forced to depend on informal credit which bring in a number of disadvantages to fishermen such as low beach prices, high rates of interest and perpetual indebtedness.
Compared to the vastness of available waters and human resources in the country and their potential, the existing support services and extension network remain at inadequate levels. a stronger extension component needs to be integrated in development projects. The following are the major issues regarding extension:
Lack of definite plans, objectives, programmes in fishery extension at both national and Thana levels.
On-line functions have not been established between the DOF Headquarters, Division, District and Thana level.
Lack of technical qualifications and experience of extension officers;
Lack of linkages between DOF and FRI in the effort to impart the results of research to target population;
Inadequate number of field extension staff to cope with a large number of clients.
Lack of instructional manuals/materials which are relevant to local conditions.
Women's participation has contributed to sustaining activities in fisheries and fishery-related activities in Bangladesh. However, fisheries sector, with only 5% female employment of 10 years and above, has been lagging behind agriculture (47%) and Forestry (36%). Therefore, there is a considerable potential for their increased participation both at individual and groups levels. But to achieve this, substantial efforts are to be made for proper identification and assessment of their problems and needs and better understanding of their culture and power relation between men and women and power structure in respect of religious, political and economic matters within family and community.
NGOs such as BRAC, CARITAS, PROSHIKA, and RDRS have assisted women's groups in small-scale income generating activities. Pond fish culture is a prevailing activity of the NGO-assisted women groups to which training, credit and input supply are generally provided. Some women members take part in excavation and re-excavation of ponds. They release fingerlings, feed them, guard their ponds and also make decision regarding catching and selling of fish. However, NGOs' assistance is still sporadic and small in scale. The major issues are:
The lack of easy access to credit is one of the problems facing rural women. For example, shrimp post larvae gathers need a net and other utensils. All these materials cost TK 350 (us$ 9) to TK 400 (US$ 11) per unit. Since rural women have difficulties in meeting their financial need, they often borrow money at very high interest rate from shrimp seed traders and they sell the fry to the traders until the loan is repaid.
Rural women are also engaged in fishing in rivers and in closed waters such as beels, baors, etc. They have to pay fees to get licence for fishing in those waters, and they are often forced to pay such a fee to a number of people and several times a year.
In the floodplain and coastal fisheries, extension services of the DOF, almost entirely undertaken by male professionals, do not reach rural women. Throughout the country there are only a few female fishery extension officers.
Women remain secluded since women's involvement in ownership, management and fish rearing, fishing and marketing is still minimal. In floodplain fisheries, extension officers spend most of their time in enforcement of regulations, while in shrimp culture projects extension services are geared to the male operators only.
The following observations as well as those of donor agencies, national and international NGOs all point to the same conclusion that the lack of adequate and timely credit facilities is a major constraint to the fisheries development in Bangladesh:
Credit allocation in the fisheries sector is shrinking both in numbers and in amount as a result of poor loan disbursement and recovery. This is a very unhealthy sign in the rural development effort. Credit disbursement to the fishery sector have declined since the volume of loans in arrears is steadily growing. For example, the total amount of loans disbursed by all specialized and commercial banks to the fishery sector in 1985/86 was TK 127.27 million, which dropped to TK 65.4 million in 1987/88. Disbursement targets set by the Bangladesh Bank is not compulsory and there are no penalties for not achieving them. Most of the specialized and commercial banks have sufficient funds available for lending as well as a high liquidity and they were not able to utilize external funds provided by institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to any significant extent for lending to the fisheries sector. (e.g., in the case of ADB Second Aquaculture Development Project with US$ 23 million to disburse, only US$ 25,000 disbursed in 1993.) In addition to lending policies and procedures, staffing and bank internal rules and regulations pose serious obstacles to an expansion of fisheries credit on a financially and economically viable basis.
Shrimp farmers, hatchery nursery operators, processing plant owners and small-scale fishermen find it difficult to obtain institutional credit for working capital expenditure since they do not have collateral including land deeds/titles, ownership of ponds, other immovable property and third party guarantee required by banks. In addition, they find lending procedures too complicated and bureaucratic.
Mainly because of the lack of collateral in small-scale fisheries sector, financial institution have been involved in financing the fisheries sector only on a modest scale and the achievements in terms of loan disbursements and loan recoveries have not been encouraging. Inadequate flows of institutional credit have furthermore become an obstacle to the implementation of major investment projects funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and also prevented entrepreneurs and members of artisanal fishing communities from taking full advantage from technical assistance projects and from the investment opportunities identified by these institutions.
With regard poverty eradication, people's participation, enhancement of women's role in development, financial institutions are hardly in a position to make a contribution. In accordance with regulations, lending operations are strictly based on collateral thereby excluding rural poor and the vast majority of rural and urban women. Lending procedures do not allow borrower participation and do not even encourage borrower education and savings mobilization.
The NGOs through extending credit support to the poor who are denied access to existing credit institutions, have clearly shown that lending without collateral is indeed viable. Grameen Bank, PROSHIKA-MUK, Comilla-PROSHIKA and many other NGOs have achieved commendable success in this field. BRAC, PROSHIKA-MUK and Comilla PROSHIKA also have the credit programme amounting to roughly TK 20 crore.
The ratio of overdue loans in relation to outstanding loans is exceptionally high and not all economic and financial policies of the GOB are entirely conducive to viable efficient operations of financial institutions in the rural sector of the economy. While it has been widely acknowledged, appropriate action to rectify the situation has not been taken and rehabilitation of rural financial markets is overdue.
It is noteworthy that in spite of the strict collateral orientation of the Government owned financial institutions, their financial position is extremely weak, mainly because of overdue loan repayments. This indicates a lack of willingness of the Government to actually make use of the collateral. This, together with the practice of writing off loans which are not being paid, eventually results in a lack of financial discipline and negatively affects the financial and economic viability of financial institutions and ultimately economic growth and development.
Inappropriate lending policies, norms and procedures for the fisheries sector constitute an obstacle because target groups for lending are often not well defined in terms of professional/vocational qualifications and experience, income, ownership/non-ownership productive assets, gender and geographic locations.
The shortcomings of institutional fisheries credit have to be seen in the context of the overall institutional arrangements for rural credit which are so far not conducive for development banking:
These include organizations like the Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the Community Development Centre (CODEC), the Rotary Club, religious groups such as the Mennonite Central Committee, and various other groups. In the case of NGOs, amounts disbursed so far have been small and were mainly targeted to traditional short-term working capital requirements. Fisheries credit has not been pursued as a specialized or separate lending activity but in response to requests of members of newly formed or already established groups. In some cases training is provided together with credit. As far as the overall credit requirements of the small-scale fisheries sector are concerned, the role of NGOs has been so far negligible. Lack of appropriate extension services regarding rural finance and savings is another constraint together with the limited capacity and experience of NGOs in dealing with loan appraisal and supervision.
the informal finance comprises “dadandars” or fish traders cum money lenders as well as relatives and friends and suppliers of fishery inputs. With regard to informal credit systems, money lenders provide finance mainly for short-term working capital on a very limited scale and at extremely unfavourable financial terms. Finance from this group does neither seem to be suitable to meeting medium and long-term investment requirements, particularly in connection with introduction and adoption of innovative production technologies and methodologies, nor to facilitate the development of an economically strong and financially sound class of small and medium scale entrepreneurs.
The following are the major post-harvest and marketing issues:
The main problems affecting the marketing of fish are:
the isolation of many fishing communities from their wholesale landing facilities,
poor transport,
lack of ice,
Poor physical facilities for marketing of fish such as landing centres, wholesale and retail markets are another detriment to development.
A significant economic loss is made due to Widespread ignorance of the factors affecting fish quality and ways of overcoming them. According to The ODA (1987) estimate, the quantitative loss would be in order of 35,000 tons (i.e. 4.6% of the catch in 1987) and qualitative losses of all internally consumed fish would be worth US$ 96 million. In the case of shrimp exports, quantitative losses (because of excessive washing) were estimated to be about US$ 2 million and the qualitative losses (because of downgrading) in the order of US$ 7 million.
Improper handling of catches by artisanal fishermen at landing places.
Limited market information.
High marketing margins (marketing costs plus traders' profit) which vary between 30% to 50% of the retail price for different fish species and 18% to 60% for shrimp).
Ineffective IQCS, lack of qualified staff at DOF's quality control and inspection office laboratories and poor equipment.
Inland waters have come under considerable environmental modifications during the last three decades:
Some 700 flood control, drainage and irrigation (FCDI) projects have been implemented by The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and several hundred other smaller projects by local public and private organizations. These projects are intended to create conditions favourable for rice production or to protect infrastructure and urban areas.
Such projects have inevitably resulted in a decrease in floodplain areas.
Few of the above projects have taken into account the needs of the fisheries sector or include physical structures designed to achieve fisheries objectives (e.g. failure of allowing fish to bypass embankments and regulators so as to successfully carry out breeding migrations).
The prevention of river bank overtopping and lateral flooding has led to problems of aggravated sedimentation further downstream in river channels and haors/beels.
In-filling of deep water habitats has adversely affected fish production.
Large scale clearing of floodplain forests to create agricultural lands for rice monoculture has further degraded the larger floodplain and wetland habitats.
Pollution of inland and coastal waters by industrial effluent is increasing and results in both lethal (i.e. massive fish kills) and sublethal (i.e. tainted flesh) impacts. Virtually no effluent treatment is carried out at any of the industrial plants generating most environmental degradation: fertilizer, pulp and paper, tanneries, sugar, textiles, petroleum refinery, insecticides and detergent. Major industrial estates are located in Dhaka (328 plants), Chittagong (144 plants) and Khulna (3 industrial zones). The other isolated plants also have sever localized effects on the quality of the receiving water and fishery resources.
Sewage treatment from all sources (urban, township, villages, homestead) is almost non-existent. Untreated sewage, which does not have the potential benefits of stabilized sewage, causes oxygen depletion in receiving waters and and thus lowering fish production.
The clearance of mangrove forests for building shrimp farms is another source of environmental degradation.
Levels of toxic chemical accumulation in fish flesh have not yet been monitored, and there is presently little capacity to conduct such analyses on a regular basis.
