Abstract
A series of systematic successional investigations were performed to assess the socio-economic and
technical impacts of Mymensingh Aquaculture Extension Project (MAEP) in rural Bangladesh during the
period from 2008 to 2009. Three Upazilas such as, Fulpur, Gaffargaon and Nandail of Mymensingh district
and another three Upazilas namely, Kishoregonj Sadar, Hossainpur and Pakundia were selected as study
areas. A total of six hundred (600) farmers comprising of three hundred (300) MAEP phased-out farmers
and another three hundreds phased-out NGOs farmers were selected as sample. The sampled farmers were
selected through stratified random sampling. The data were collected from the study areas through structured
questionnaires survey, focus group discussion (FGD) and cross-check interviews. Before and after (ex-ante)
methods was the main basis of this impact assessment. Results of the study indicated that current fish
production increased on an average 15.51 Kg/decimal/year i.e., 3831 Kg/ha/year and net increment by 11.38
Kg/decimal/year with increment rate of 276% as compared to baseline records (4.13 Kg/decimal/year i.e.,
1020 Kg/ha/year) after intervention of MAEP in the study areas. Annual aquaculture net income was found
to be increased by 20% over the total annual income of the fish farming households. Estimated
Benefit-Cost- Ratio (BCR) was found to be 2.99. A highly significant (p<0.05) increment in fish
production was noted among the surveyed fish farmers after the project intervention. Adoption
assessment results showed that 83% of the fish farmers fully adopted carp polyculture and 84.9%
of the fish farmers belonged to medium-high aquaculture knowledge categories. About 89.2% of
the fish farmers had medium to high decision making ability for undertaking pond aquaculture.
More than 80% of the farmers did not adopt carp polyculture and nursery management practices in
rice-fields due to lack of suitable rice-field, aquaculture friendly credit and technical complexities
of related issues. Five dimensions of rural women empowerment such as, decision making ability,
spending ability, cosmopoliteness, social participation and access to assets and resources showed a
significant (p<0.05) improvement in empowerment of rural women in all dimensions after
participation in aquaculture under MAEP. No woman was found to be fully empowered even after
participation. On an average 58% of the received credit was utilized in fish farming by the farmers
and credit repayment rate was 96%. Weekly credit repayment system in aquaculture was the main
hindering factor of timely credit repayment. The project also significantly generated livelihood
assets such as, human capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and financial capital
as compared to before situation. Fish culture technologies advocated by MAEP were found to be
sustainable among the sampled farmers which were presumed due to prior intensive training,
extension supports and timely availability of aquaculture credit. A tri-partite collaboration (DonorDoF-NGO) which had existed before phasing out of MAEP was found to operate well under bilateral agreement of DoF and NGO. Absence of participation of any research institute in the
aquaculture extension system was found to be the main lacking of MAEP aquaculture extension
approach. For developing an appropriate aquaculture extension system, an alternative extension
approach was proposed and some recommendations were made for future policy planning and
implementation of similar project in the country. The technical interventions of MAEP project
were highly successful in uplifting the socio-economic status of the beneficiaries in the study areas
of rural Bangladesh.