DFM Bangladesh

Map of Banlgadesh (UN OCHA)

Bangladesh is a South Asian country. It shares land borders with India and Myanmar. The country’s maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area. Bangladesh is the world’s eighth most populous country.  Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by Chittagong, which has the country’s largest port . The country’s geography is dominated by the Bengal delta with many rivers. Bangladesh is considered one of the most suitable regions for fisheries in the world, with the world’s largest flooded wetland and having the third largest aquatic biodiversity in Asia after China and India [1]. According to the world bank database 2017, 17 million people (1.4 million women) are depending on fisheries sector for their livelihoods through fishing, farming, fish handling, and processing [2].

Dried Fish in Bangladesh

Fish is considered as one of the main food items for Bangladeshis. As the land is a delta, Bangladesh is one of the leading fish producing countries in the world. According to the Yearbook of Fisheries Statistics of Bangladesh 2016-17 by Department of Fisheries of Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, the total production of fish in Bangladesh is 4.134 million MT, where aquaculture contributes 56.44 percent to total production. Fish is contributing significantly towards the food security as 60 percent animal protein comes from fish. A large proportion of marine and fresh water fish landings are processed by drying, and dried fish accounted for the fourth largest share of fish consumed in Bangladesh [3]. In some regions of the country, dried fish is consumed more frequently than any other type of fish.

The DFM Bangladesh Team

Dr. Mostafa Hossain

Dr. Hossain will lead the activities of DFM Bangladesh Research Team through working and assisting other members of the team in planning the activities and sourcing and reviewing the secondary literature. His work also includes networking and overall communication of members of Bangladesh Research team with stakeholders at different tiers, other partner countries and lead partners.

Prof. Mohammad Matiur Rahman

Prof. Rahman will assist Bangladesh Lead in planning the activities and networking. He will also work on secondary literature review, data analyses and report preparation.

Prof. Md. Samsul Alam

Prof. Alam with his more than 25 years in Bangladesh fisheries will work on secondary literature review, field activities including data collection, analyses, report preparation and drafting the papers for peer reviewed journals.

Prof. Mst. Kaniz Fatema

Prof. Fatema will assist Bangladesh Lead in data collection from the field and analyses of the collected data. As an expert in fisheries management and gender in fisheries, her field activities in the field will be crucial as most the works in the drying yard are women and girl children in making the communication easy and proper rapport building.

Prof. Mirza Taslima Sultana

Professor Sultana will lead the JU Research Team and will remain responsible for communication with BAU lead researcher and other stakeholders (BIDS etc.) in Bangladesh. Prof Sultana will also be responsible for communication between the lead partners in Canada as well as regional governing bodies for a smooth running and completion of the project. Besides communicating, as an expert on gender relationships of Bangladesh, she would contribute in understanding the gender relations within the dried fish stack value chain which will cover the objective 2 and 3.

Prof. Rasheda Akhtar

Prof. Akhtar, Dept. of Anthropology od JUand a member of DFM Bangladesh team will be responsible for conducting research in the areas of health, nutrition and gender.

Prof. Sayeed Ferdous

Prof. Ferdous, Dept. of Anthropolgy, JU, as an expert in researching oral history and memories, he will contribute in the research to understand the regional economic history which will cover the objective 1 and 2.

Prof. Md. Siddiqur Rahman

Professor Rahman of Dept. of Anthropology, JU will work as a member of Bangladesh research team and will also lead the research objective 02 (fine grained research) of the project.  Professor Rahman will also be responsible for ensuring that milestones for each objective are met according to a detailed project timeline.

Dr. Mahmudul Hasan Sumon

Prof. Sumon works at the Department of Anthropology, JU. As an expert on ethnicity, identity formation and agency, in the Bangladesh team, he will contribute in researching the social exclusionary processes and marginalization faced by the fisher folk communities in Bangladesh.    

Dr. Khaleda Islam

Dr. Islam from IFNS will work on the activities of Objective 3; Food and Nutrition security, such as preparation of survey questionnaire, taking part in consumption survey and analyzing nutrients and pesticides in dried products.

Prof. C. Emdad Haque

Professor Haque will lead the activities under Objective 4; policy scoping: developing inventory of current local policies, assessment of effectiveness, identification of best practices, identification of priority development interventions for research area planning of pilot development interventions. Moreover, Prof. Haque will assist the DFM Bangladesh Research Team in the activities under other three objectives.

Mahfuzar Rahman

Mahfuzar Rahman is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Manitoba. His doctoral research is aiming to map out the social value chains in Northeast South Asia with particular attention to human rights issues and the food and nutrition security of the region.

Dr. M. Mukhlesur Rahman

Dr. Rahman from CNRS will be involved in activities under objective 4, such as identification of best practices and identification of priority development interventions for research area planning of pilot development interventions.

Partner Organisations

Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh (JU)

Established in 1972, Jahangirnagar University (JU) is one of the leading universities in Bangladesh. Jahangirnagar University is well known for its infrastructural and intellectual resources and has long experiences in collaborative research and hosting international workshops, seminars and conferences. The department of Anthropology is the oldest department in the university. The department has undergraduate, Masters and PhD programmes with an average of 300 students per year, with considerable experience in conducting qualitative research, and especially anthropology’s hallmark method of ethnography.

The department has nineteen faculties working in areas of relevance to the DFM project; the fields of archival, historical and applied research with foci on ethnicity, environment, gender, development and livelihoods. It will collaborate in the design, implementation and analysis of the stacked value chain component of the DFM project and holds the primary responsibility for the qualitative scoping portion. The department will also be involved in planning and implementing the follow-up qualitative studies after the survey, which will typically be undertaken by students.

Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU)

Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) has been established as the only university of its kind in Bangladesh in 1961. The university has six faculties and 43 departments covering all aspects of agricultural education and research. BAU has ranked as the number one university of Bangladesh according to the Webomrtrix University ranking 2017 [4]. BAU’s research in agriculture has made it well recognized across Asia.

The Department of Fisheries Biology and Genetics (FBG) of BAU will lead the survey research component of the DFM project in Bangladesh, in collaboration with other partners and will contribute to survey design and methodological discussions at the project level. FDG-BAU’s contribution to the research in Bangladesh will help to produce a first thorough understanding of the dried fish economy in the South and Southeast Asian region through in depth analyses of historical trends, socio-cultural aspects, and economic and policy relevance.

FBG-BAU, in collaboration with the partners, would also be involved in evaluating the contribution of dried fish in food and nutritional security of millions of poor and marginal people living in rural and urban areas.

Significant Publications on Dried fish-Bangladesh

Belton, B., Hossain, M. A., & Thilsted, S. H. (2018). Labour, identity and wellbeing in Bangladesh’s dried fish value chains. In Social Wellbeing and the Values of Small-scale Fisheries (pp. 217-241). Springer, Cham.

Bhuiyan, N. H., Bhuiyan, H. R., Nath, K. K., Ahmed, K., HASSAN, T., & Bhuiyan, N. I. (2009). Organochlorine insecticides (DDT and heptachlor) in dry fish available in Bangladesh: seasonal trends and species variability. Journal of the Chilean Chemical Society, 54(3), 278-281.

Bhuiyan, M. N. H., Bhuiyan, H. R., Rahim, M., Ahmed, K., Haque, K. F., Hassan, M. T., & Bhuiyan, M. N. I. (2008). Screening of organochlorine insecticides (DDT and heptachlor) in dry fish available in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology, 3(2), 114-120.

Biswas, H., Sarwer, R. H., & Rahman, M. (2006). Marine fish marketing system and women participation in selected fish catching areas of Bangladesh. Journal of the Bangladesh Agricultural University, 4(452-2018-3897).

Hossain, M.A.R., Belton, B., Thilsted, S. 2013. Preliminary rapid appraisal of dried fish value chains in Bangladesh. WorldFish Bangladesh, Dhaka.

Belton, B., Hossain, M. A. R. and Thilsted, S. H. 2014.  Dried fish industry: Livelihood and food security in Bangladesh. FAN-Bangladesh 3:26-28.

Hossain, M. A. R., Hasan, M. K., Islam, M. S., Belton, B. and Thilsted, S. H. 2014. From fresh fish to dried fish – how much weight is lost? FAN-Bangladesh 3:33-37.

Mansur, M. A., Islam, M. N., Bhuiyan, A. K. M. A., & Hoq, M. E. (2000). Nutritional composition, yield and consumer response to a semi-fermented fish product prepared from underutilized fish species of the Bngladesh coastline.

Shamsuddoha, M. (2007). Supply and value chain analysis in the marketing of marine dried fish in Bangladesh and non tariff measures (NTMs) in international trading (No. 691-2016-47361).

Shamsuzzaman, M. M., Islam, M. M., Tania, N. J., Al-Mamun, M. A., Barman, P. P., & Xu, X. (2017). Fisheries resources of Bangladesh: Present status and future direction. Aquaculture and Fisheries, 2(4), 145-156.