WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2013 29 communities) saw ‘organic’ shrimp production as one possible, more sustainable future. Taking this as a point of departure, we visited the Organic Shrimp Project in Kalignj, southwest Bangladesh, to explore its potential as a model for future developments in the Bangladeshi shrimp sector. The Explosive Growth of the Bangladeshi Shrimp Sector The history of shrimp farming in Bangladesh is dynamic, described in terms of rapid growth and growing pains. Certainly the sector has had a checkered past. Today more than 250,000 Bangladeshi shrimp farmers are producing about 170,000 million t of shrimp per year (Fisheries Resources Survey System 2007) for export to Europe (50.1 percent), the USA (26.8 percent), India (7.8 percent) or Japan (3.6 percent) (Kruijssen et al. 2012). Shrimp farming is based on a cultivation area of over 217,877 ha (Haque et al. 2012), mainly in the districts around Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat in southwest Bangladesh. For many in these districts the shrimp industry has been a driver for economic and social development. There is little doubt that income from shrimp farming has contributed to improvements in local infrastructure, such as better roads and more schools, for example. Simultaneously the wealth brought by shrimp farming has pushed parallel sectors to thrive. Now, more people in these districts can afford to send their children to school, for instance, seen by many as an important improvement. In addition, according to farmers interviewed, shrimp provides them with a better standard of living and more food security than they had growing rice. However, the shrimp industry has not been equally beneficial for all in Bangladesh. There are a number of significant challenges to the traceability and quality of Bangladeshi shrimp, and social and environmental impacts of producing them. The Traceability of Bangladeshi Shrimp and Implications for Quality While the quality of Bangladeshi shrimp is quite good at harvest, the long, uncontrolled, and untraceable supply chain of transferring shrimp to processing plants is detrimental to quality of the final product. Criticism has been levelled at the poor practices of middlemen, who are accused of storing shrimp in unhygienic conditions and manipulating shrimp weight by injecting (unsanitary) water or gelatin into the body of shrimp, so-called ‘pushing.’ When shrimp arrive at a processing plant, it is rarely possible to trace where the shrimp has come from, how it was produced, who sold it at what price to the depot, and the time since harvest. This has motivated the Bangladesh government, with the support of UNIDO, to do comprehensive work to establish a traceability scheme, registering farms and training value chain actors, but it will take time to be properly implemented. A lack of traceability can make quality assurance difficult if not impossible. What are the Environmental Costs of Economic Growth? Shrimp farming is criticized in public discourse for its environmental impact, especially the detrimental effect on soil salinity. Through construction of canals and flooding of former rice fields with salt water, the quality of soil is affected. The Bangladesh Soil Research Institute describes the growth in saline areas as “truly alarming,” noting that it affects mainly coastal areas, where 30 percent of the country’s arable land is located (Siehe Ahsan et al. 2012). The reasons for the increased extent and intensity of elevated soil salinity are numerous; shrimp production contributes only partly to this problem. The effect of climate change has to be considered, with Bangladesh one of the countries most affected. With a rising sea level and an increase in extreme weather events, salt water floods further inland along rivers and, through an increase in temperature and evaporation, salinity in rivers increases even further. In addition, the restriction of river flows in India contributes significantly to salinity. With the construction of the Farakka Barrage across the Ganges River by the Indian Government in 1975, freshwater flow in the rivers has decreased, allowing seawater to extend farther up-river. In the last 36 years, the affected area increased by about 26.7 percent with an increasing intensity of soil salinity (Siehe Ahsan et al. 2012). With increased soil salinity, the productivity of rice and vegetable farming declines. Shrimp production can thus be seen as an adaptation of former rice farmers to changes in the environment as shrimp farming has become a more suitable use of the land. Nonetheless, shrimp cultivation is contributing to (CONTINUED ON PAGE 30) Md. Shabtar Rahran (R), conventional fish farmer working in the local administration. “I think that shrimp farming is good for me and Bangladesh, because the people in this area are now economically solvent and happier than when producing rice. The lifestyle has improved a lot, new roads have been constructed and food security is now a lot better than 20 years before, when rice was sometimes not available on the markets. The price for buying rice is a little higher as we cannot produce it in this area, but as the income is higher we can afford it. Shrimp farming has had a negative impact on the environment; we are in a totally saline area and no rice can be grown anymore, but there are enough rice fields in other parts of the country. With shrimp farming we can sustain our families.”
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