Shrimp vs prawn-rice farming in Bangladesh: A comparative impacts study on local environments and livelihoods

Abstract

Both the freshwater prawn and saline water shrimp in Bangladesh locally known as white gold because of their high transactional value. Though coastal agro-climatic conditions are suitable for both shrimp and prawn, availability of resources in addition to easy and cheap operational manner triggers the rapid expansion of shrimp farming compare to prawn farming in southwest coastal part of Bangladesh. But unplanned expansion of shrimp farming has raised several concerns regarding environmental and social aspects. Average soil salinity has been increased more than 6 times and in some areas 10 to 15 times from 1984 to 2014. The present study aims to expound the impact of shrimp and prawn-rice farming on agriculture, livestock and livelihoods of local marginal farmers who are the majority of the society. The results showed salinity intrusion due to shrimp farming significantly reduced crops and livestock production, and ceased many livelihood options in the shrimp farming areas; but in same time period prawn-rice farming system creates versatile employment opportunities including significant growth of agricultural crops production. The household income of marginal farmers was found almost double in prawn farming areas (BDT 13,880) than that of shrimp farming areas (BDT 7718). Higher production cost of prawn-rice farming (BDT 307,816 ha−1 year−1) than shrimp farming (BDT 94,811 ha−1 year−1) often compel the farmers to adopt shrimp farming despite the higher net return from prawn-rice farming (BDT 192,520 ha−1 year−1) to shrimp farming (BDT 122,629 ha−1 year−1) as well. Overall findings of the study indicate a huge prospect of promoting prawn-rice farming through adequate institutional arrangement, which will protect the socio-economy of the marginal locals and sustainability of the local environment simultaneously.