This paper documents the BOBP’s experience with intermediate technology for net manufacture in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The intermediate technology tool was a manually operated net machine, originally of Japanese design but modified by a Bombay firm. It was hoped that the net machine could be operated by fisherwomen to supplement family incomes and also increase the supply of gillnets.

The Bombay suppliers of the machine assisted in installing the manually operated machine in Bangladesh and in training fisherwomen to operate it. The machine was tried out at the CARITAS-supported Kalidaha Fishing Project near Chittagong from May 1982 to March 1984 and by a private entrepreneur from February 1985 to April 1986. A comparative study was carried out between the manually operated machine, hand-braiding of nets and industrial net-making. On behalf of the Directorate of Fisheries, Bangladesh, Mr. A Bashiruddin, Assistant Inspector of Fisheries, Chittagong supervised the trials. From the BOBP, Mr. G. Pajot, Senior Fishing Technologist, and Mr. A Kashem, Project Officer in Bangladesh, provided monitoring and coordination.

The trials were sponsored by the small-scale fisheries project of the Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP). The project began in 1979. It is executed by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and funded by SIDA (Swedish International Development Authority). The main goals of the project are to develop, demonstrate and promote appropriate technologies and methodologies to improve the conditions of small-scale fisherfolk in five countries bordering the Bay of Bengal - Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.