Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s aquaculture sector has contributed progressively to the nation’s economy over the years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has impeded fish farmers’ access to markets, reduced their production and sales capacity, resulted in lower income, and increased food security vulnerability. This study as...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alam, G. M. Monirul, Sarker, Md Nazirul Islam, Kamal, Md Abdus Samad, Khatun, Most Nilufa, Bhandari, Humnath
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163993
_version_ 1855519661374832640
author Alam, G. M. Monirul
Sarker, Md Nazirul Islam
Kamal, Md Abdus Samad
Khatun, Most Nilufa
Bhandari, Humnath
author_browse Alam, G. M. Monirul
Bhandari, Humnath
Kamal, Md Abdus Samad
Khatun, Most Nilufa
Sarker, Md Nazirul Islam
author_facet Alam, G. M. Monirul
Sarker, Md Nazirul Islam
Kamal, Md Abdus Samad
Khatun, Most Nilufa
Bhandari, Humnath
author_sort Alam, G. M. Monirul
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Bangladesh’s aquaculture sector has contributed progressively to the nation’s economy over the years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has impeded fish farmers’ access to markets, reduced their production and sales capacity, resulted in lower income, and increased food security vulnerability. This study assesses how COVID-19 affects smallholder fish farmers and their response strategies by employing data collected from 250 fish farmers and traders from intensive fish-growing areas of Bangladesh. The results reveal that most farmers experienced difficulty obtaining inputs, and the price of those inputs skyrocketed during the COVID-19 period, resulting in several months of decreased production and operations. As a result of COVID-19, farm gate prices for silver carp, ruhu, common carp, grass carp, and tilapia fish dropped by 25%, 23%, 23%, 22%, 23%, and 40%, respectively. On the other hand, fish feed prices were found to increase significantly. Reduced income from fish farming and other sources has triggered a significant drop in capital for farming operations and production capacity improvement, leading to food insecurity. The most common coping strategies include reduced buying from the market (vegetables, fruits, meat, milk, etc.), relying on less expensive or less preferred food, purchasing food on credit, and selling assets. Notably, due to COVID-19, a new mode of marketing has evolved as an adaptation strategy in the fish marketing system, such as the use of the mobile phone (18%) and Facebook/internet to sell fish directly to the customer (16%). The sector requires short-term financial assistance to assist fish actors with production and marketing challenges.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace163993
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher MDPI
publisherStr MDPI
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1639932025-12-08T10:29:22Z Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh Alam, G. M. Monirul Sarker, Md Nazirul Islam Kamal, Md Abdus Samad Khatun, Most Nilufa Bhandari, Humnath agrifood systems agro-industrial sector aquaculturists sustainability bangladesh food systems value chains Bangladesh’s aquaculture sector has contributed progressively to the nation’s economy over the years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has impeded fish farmers’ access to markets, reduced their production and sales capacity, resulted in lower income, and increased food security vulnerability. This study assesses how COVID-19 affects smallholder fish farmers and their response strategies by employing data collected from 250 fish farmers and traders from intensive fish-growing areas of Bangladesh. The results reveal that most farmers experienced difficulty obtaining inputs, and the price of those inputs skyrocketed during the COVID-19 period, resulting in several months of decreased production and operations. As a result of COVID-19, farm gate prices for silver carp, ruhu, common carp, grass carp, and tilapia fish dropped by 25%, 23%, 23%, 22%, 23%, and 40%, respectively. On the other hand, fish feed prices were found to increase significantly. Reduced income from fish farming and other sources has triggered a significant drop in capital for farming operations and production capacity improvement, leading to food insecurity. The most common coping strategies include reduced buying from the market (vegetables, fruits, meat, milk, etc.), relying on less expensive or less preferred food, purchasing food on credit, and selling assets. Notably, due to COVID-19, a new mode of marketing has evolved as an adaptation strategy in the fish marketing system, such as the use of the mobile phone (18%) and Facebook/internet to sell fish directly to the customer (16%). The sector requires short-term financial assistance to assist fish actors with production and marketing challenges. 2023-02-01 2024-12-19T12:53:18Z 2024-12-19T12:53:18Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163993 en Open Access MDPI Alam, G. M. Monirul; Sarker, Md Nazirul Islam; Kamal, Md Abdus Samad; Khatun, Most Nilufa and Bhandari, Humnath. 2023. Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh. Sustainability, Volume 15 no. 3 p. 2638
spellingShingle agrifood systems
agro-industrial sector
aquaculturists
sustainability
bangladesh
food systems
value chains
Alam, G. M. Monirul
Sarker, Md Nazirul Islam
Kamal, Md Abdus Samad
Khatun, Most Nilufa
Bhandari, Humnath
Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh
title Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh
title_full Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh
title_fullStr Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh
title_short Impact of covid-19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies: empirical evidence from Bangladesh
title_sort impact of covid 19 on smallholder aquaculture farmers and their response strategies empirical evidence from bangladesh
topic agrifood systems
agro-industrial sector
aquaculturists
sustainability
bangladesh
food systems
value chains
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163993
work_keys_str_mv AT alamgmmonirul impactofcovid19onsmallholderaquaculturefarmersandtheirresponsestrategiesempiricalevidencefrombangladesh
AT sarkermdnazirulislam impactofcovid19onsmallholderaquaculturefarmersandtheirresponsestrategiesempiricalevidencefrombangladesh
AT kamalmdabdussamad impactofcovid19onsmallholderaquaculturefarmersandtheirresponsestrategiesempiricalevidencefrombangladesh
AT khatunmostnilufa impactofcovid19onsmallholderaquaculturefarmersandtheirresponsestrategiesempiricalevidencefrombangladesh
AT bhandarihumnath impactofcovid19onsmallholderaquaculturefarmersandtheirresponsestrategiesempiricalevidencefrombangladesh