An exploration of impacts of aquaculture production and marketing on rural livelihoods in three regions in Bangladesh

Increased domestic and international demand for aquatic foods have greatly enhanced aquaculture practices and production in Bangladesh, which is reflected in the national economy. However, the impacts of a fast growing aquaculture sector through the involvement of stakeholders, poorer sections throughout the value chain and broader rural livelihoods are largely underdeveloped and have frequently been ignored. The present study explores the impacts of dynamic aquaculture sector on stakeholders at production level and supply chain and test the hypothesis that aquaculture is enhancing rural livelihoods and benefiting the poor. Three aquaculture production systems in three areas of Bangladesh were selected for the study. These were prawn production in gher system in Jessore, pond fish culture in Mymensingh and rice-fish farming in Dinajpur. This selection allowed analysis both the impacts of domestic and export marketing of aquaculture products. Participatory research data collection tools; focus group discussions and participatory mapping were commonly used along with questionnaire surveys to ensure participation of stakeholders. Aquaculture, in general, found to have had significant impacts on rural livelihoods. The greatest effect of aquaculture on farming households were observed in income and consumption. Integrated aquaculture systems were the regular source of fish and vegetables and constitute more than half of the fish and vegetables consumed by farming households. While income from aquaculture was the highest among the several household income sources, the main cash crop differed between the systems studied. Prawn, fish and rice was the main cash earning crops for gher farming, fish farming and rice-fish farming respectively. Qualitative investigation suggested that aquaculture not only increased income through greater production volume, but also improved farmers’ assets through income diversification to farm and non-farm sources. The other important outcomes of aquaculture were the enhancement of social safety nets through increased sharing of inputs and labour among farmers. Commonly the aquaculture systems were found to be more intensive with an increasingly commercial attitude over the last ten years, which affected the intra-household labour distribution leading to a greater role for women in production management. While the three activities; fish feed preparation, feeding and growing vegetables performed by vast majority of women could be attributed to their inherent involvement with agriculture, hard physical work like harvesting ponds and pond construction were mostly carried out by the women from poor households as a strategy to reduce hired labour cost. The women’s’ increased involvement in aquaculture not only increased their overall workload, but also empowered them in household decision making to some extend. However, involvement in decision making was related to the level of involvement in production activities. The impacts of aquaculture spread beyond the farming households to the broader rural livelihoods. Wage labourers and fishers (harvesting teams) two of the poorest groups of people directly involved were benefited most over the last ten years. Intensification of aquaculture increased the demand for hired labour leading to a structural shift in the agricultural wage labour market in farming communities. About half of the agricultural labourers were found part-time employed in aquaculture activities in Jessore and Mymensingh. In Dinajpur intensification of rice cultivation had a much higher effect on the demand for labour than aquaculture. Increased employment in rural areas increased real labour wages by about one fifth over the last ten years and subsequently improved livelihood outcomes. Declining fish catch due to both decreased natural fish stocks and more restricted property rights, professional fishers benefited by diversifying their livelihoods into the aquaculture sector. While, many of the fishers permanently changed their profession to prawn marketing in Jessore, the rest were full-time or part-time employed in harvesting ponds and/or retailing fish in markets. Such diversification of income greatly reduced seasonal vulnerability and improved livelihood outcomes. The role of fish marketing, which is a critical institution in rural livelihoods, was found to facilitate the growth of the aquaculture sector. High demand of aquatic products and the diverse options of marketing fisheries enabled farmers to meet their initial requirements. More commercial operations of aquaculture increased farmers’ awareness and linkages to markets. However, typically the worse-off farmers were the slowest to capture new market opportunities, often due to their poor resources and human capital. Fish marketing was found to be run by the private sector and government provided the infrastructure facilities, except prawn processing plants, which were developed by private sector. While the fish market transactions were fairly efficient, markets facilities and infrastructure were commonly poor and need of government investment for improvement. A gradual growth of fish and markets in the rural areas was observed in the study; this was driven by the increased demand for fish through increased population and supply from aquaculture. The marketing intermediaries provided important services despite their small share of consumers’ price and ensured a fair share for farmers. The auctioneers provided a vital role in running the supply chain with investment and credits, which ensured fair competition in the pricing process. Marketing of aquatic products was not only a mechanism of product transaction, but also provided critical livelihoods for rural poor. On average about one hundred people, including retailers were involved in auction markets and eight people in prawn depots. Importantly the number of people in marketing was found to have increase over the years. Access for different groups of poor people to marketing jobs was found to be significant in rural livelihoods. The asset base and daily earning indicates that more than three quarters of the marketing intermediaries were poor; some of them were from poorest and low cast Hindu society. Greater flexibility of entry and exit to the jobs enabled the poorer sections to diversify their livelihoods, which enabled to cope with seasonal variability of opportunities and stable income. The marketing employment provided then increased livelihood welfare and social security. Finally, it can be concluded that the promotion of aquaculture not only increased much needed food availability but also generated critical livelihoods and marketing is not just a mechanism of product flow, but also providing livelihoods welfare to poorest sections of the society. The micro level findings of the study regarding impacts of aquaculture indicate that aquaculture production and marketing have significant impacts on enhancing rural livelihoods in Bangladesh

Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and associated factors among mothers in rural Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

This article was published in International Breastfeeding Journal [© 2014 BioMed Central Ltd.] and the definite version is available at: https://internationalbreastfeedingjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-4358-9-7Background: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) means that the infant receives only breast milk for the first six months of life after birth. In Bangladesh, the prevalence of EBF remained largely unchanged for nearly two decades and was 43% in 2007. However, in 2011, a prevalence of 64% was reported, an increase by 21 percentage points. The reasons for this large change remain speculative at this point. Thus to investigate the issue further, this study was conducted. The objective was to assess the prevalence of EBF and associated factors among mothers having children aged 0-6 months in rural Bangladesh. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Mirzapur Upazilla (sub district) among 121 mothers of infants aged 0-6 months. Eligible mothers were identified and randomly selected using the demographic surveillance system's computerized database that is updated weekly. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for interviews that inquired information on socio-demographic characteristics, obstetric, health service, breastfeeding related factors (initiation of breastfeeding, prelacteal feeding and colostrum feeding) and economic factors. EBF prevalence was calculated using 24 hour recall method. In multivariate analysis, a logistic regression model was developed using stepwise modeling to analyze the factors associated with EBF. Results: The prevalence of EBF in the last 24 hours preceding the survey was 36%. Bivariate and multivariate analysis revealed no significant association between EBF and its possible predictors at 0.05 level of alpha. However, there was some evidence of an association between EBF and having a caesarean delivery (OR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.21, 1.06). In multivariate analysis, type of delivery: caesarean (AOR = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.19, 1.03) and wealth quintile: richer (AOR = 2.40, 95% CI: 0.94, 6.16) also showed some evidence of an association with EBF. Conclusion: The prevalence of EBF in Mirzapur (36%) is lower than the national figure (64%). Prelacteal feeding was not uncommon. These findings suggest that there is a need for breastfeeding support provided by health services. Hence, promotion of EBF during the first six months of life needs to be addressed and future breastfeeding promotion programmes should give special attention to those women who are not practicing EBF.Publishe

Effect of birth weight on adulthood renal function: a bias-adjusted meta-analytic approach

While the association between low birth weight (LBW

Site-Specific Incidence Rate of \u3ci\u3eBlastocystis hominis\u3c/i\u3e and Its Association with Childhood Malnutrition: Findings from a Multi-Country Birth Cohort Study

In this study, we investigated the potential association between the burden of asymptomatic Blastocystis spp. (Blastocystis hominis) infection and nutritional status among children under 2 years of age using the data collected from 1,715 children from eight distinct geographic locations, including Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Peru, Tanzania, Pakistan, Nepal, and South Africa. Childhood stunting, wasting, and underweight were the outcome variables, and B. hominis infection was the exposure variable of this present study. The presence of B. hominis in nondiarrheal stools was evaluated by TaqMan Array Cards. Site-specific incidence rates were estimated using Poisson regression, and multiple generalized estimating equation was used to assess the association between the B. hominis infection and nutritional status. The site-specific incidence rates of asymptomatic B. hominis infections per 100 child-months were higher in Tanzania, Peru, and South Africa when compared with the other study sites. Moreover, in terms of site-specific association, childhood stunting was significantly associated with asymptomatic B. hominis infection in Bangladesh (odds ratio [OR]: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.26–2.08), India (OR: 1.78; 95% CI: 1.46–2.16), Nepal (OR: 2.26; 95% CI: 1.60–3.21), Peru (OR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.26–1.71), South Africa (OR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.35–1.83), and Tanzania (OR: 2.46; 95% CI: 2.18–2.79) sites. Wasting was associated with B. hominis in the Brazil site only (OR: 3.19; 95% CI: 1.31–7.77). On the other hand, underweight was associated in the Bangladesh (OR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.48–2.42), Brazil (OR: 4.41; 95% CI: 1.57–12.4), Nepal (OR: 2.25; 95% CI: 1.52–3.35), and Tanzania (OR: 1.68; 95% CI: 1.42–1.99) sites. Our analysis further reveals that the presence of additional pathogens may play a pathogenic role in children who have B. hominis infection

Translation and Validation of Enhanced Asian Rome III Questionnaires in Bengali Language for Diagnosis of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders

Background/AimsFunctional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), diagnosed by symptom-based criteria due to lack of biomarkers, need translated-validated questionnaires in different languages. As Bengali, the mother tongue of Bangladesh and eastern India, is the seventh most spoken language in the world, we translated and validated the Enhanced Asian Rome III questionnaire (EAR3Q) in this language.MethodsThe EAR3Q was translated in Bengali as per guideline from the Rome Foundation. The translated questionnaire was validated prospectively on Bengali-speaking healthy subjects (HS, n = 30), and patients with functional dyspepsia (FD, n = 35), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, n = 40) and functional constipation (FC, n = 12) diagnosed by clinicians using the Rome III criteria. The subjects were asked to fill-in the questionnaire again after 2 weeks, to check for its reproducibility.ResultsDuring translation, the original and the backward translated English versions of the questionnaire demonstrated high concordance. Sensitivity of the Bengali questionnaire to diagnose patients with FD, IBS, FC, and HS was 100%, 100%, 75%, and 100%, respectively, considering diagnosis by the clinicians as the gold standard. On test-retest reliability analysis, Kappa values for FD, IBS, FC, and HS were 1.0, 1.0, 0.83, and 1.0, respectively. The Bengali questionnaire detected considerable overlap of FD symptoms among patients with IBS, IBS among patients with FD, and FD among patients with FC, which were not detected by the clinicians.ConclusionsWe successfully translated and validated the EAR3Q in Bengali. We believe that this translated questionnaire will be useful for clinical evaluation and research on FGIDs in the Bengali-speaking population

Site-Specific Analysis of the Incidence Rate of Enterotoxigenic \u3ci\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/i\u3e Infection Elucidates an Association with Childhood Stunting, Wasting, and Being Underweight: A Secondary Analysis of the MAL-ED Birth Cohort

Asymptomatic infection by fecal enteropathogens is a major contributor to childhood malnutrition. Here, we investigated the incidence rate of asymptomatic infection by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and assessed its association with childhood stunting, wasting, and being underweight among children under 2 years of age. The Malnutrition and Enteric Disease birth cohort study included 1,715 children who were followed from birth to 24 months of age from eight distinct geographic locations including Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Peru, Tanzania, Pakistan, Nepal, and South Africa. The TaqMan array card assay was used to determine the presence of ETEC in the nondiarrheal stool samples collected from these children. Poisson regression was used to estimate the incidence rate, andmultiple generalized estimating equations with binomial family, logit link function, and exchangeable correlation were used to analyze the association between asymptomatic ETEC infection and anthropometric indicators such as stunting, wasting, and being underweight. The site-specific incidence rates of asymptomatic ETEC infections per 100 child-months were also higher at the study locations in Tanzania (54.81 [95% CI: 52.64, 57.07]) and Bangladesh (46.75 [95% CI: 44.75, 48.83]). In the Bangladesh, India, and Tanzania sites, the composite indicator of anthropometric failure was significantly associated with asymptomatic ETEC infection. Furthermore, a significant association between asymptomatic heat-stable toxin ETEC infections and childhood stunting, wasting, and being underweight was found in only the Bangladesh and Tanzania sites

Developing a forecasting model for cholera incidence in Dhaka megacity through time series climate data

Cholera, an acute diarrheal disease spread by lack of hygiene and contaminated water, is a major public health risk in many countries. As cholera is triggered by environmental conditions influenced by climatic variables, establishing a correlation between cholera incidence and climatic variables would provide an opportunity to develop a cholera forecasting model. Considering the auto-regressive nature and the seasonal behavioral patterns of cholera, a seasonal-auto-regressive-integrated-moving-average (SARIMA) model was used for time-series analysis during 2000–2013. As both rainfall (r = 0.43) and maximum temperature (r = 0.56) have the strongest influence on the occurrence of cholera incidence, single-variable (SVMs) and multi-variable SARIMA models (MVMs) were developed, compared and tested for evaluating their relationship with cholera incidence. A low relationship was found with relative humidity (r = 0.28), ENSO (r = 0.21) and SOI (r = −0.23). Using SVM for a 1 °C increase in maximum temperature at one-month lead time showed a 7% increase of cholera incidence (p \u3c 0.001). However, MVM (AIC = 15, BIC = 36) showed better performance than SVM (AIC = 21, BIC = 39). An MVM using rainfall and monthly mean daily maximum temperature with a one-month lead time showed a better fit (RMSE = 14.7, MAE = 11) than the MVM with no lead time (RMSE = 16.2, MAE = 13.2) in forecasting. This result will assist in predicting cholera risks and better preparedness for public health management in the future

Site-Specific Analysis of the Incidence Rate of Enterotoxigenic \u3ci\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/i\u3e Infection Elucidates an Association with Childhood Stunting, Wasting, and Being Underweight: A Secondary Analysis of the MAL-ED Birth Cohort

Asymptomatic infection by fecal enteropathogens is a major contributor to childhood malnutrition. Here, we investigated the incidence rate of asymptomatic infection by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and assessed its association with childhood stunting, wasting, and being underweight among children under 2 years of age. The Malnutrition and Enteric Disease birth cohort study included 1,715 children who were followed from birth to 24 months of age from eight distinct geographic locations including Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Peru, Tanzania, Pakistan, Nepal, and South Africa. The TaqMan array card assay was used to determine the presence of ETEC in the nondiarrheal stool samples collected from these children. Poisson regression was used to estimate the incidence rate, andmultiple generalized estimating equations with binomial family, logit link function, and exchangeable correlation were used to analyze the association between asymptomatic ETEC infection and anthropometric indicators such as stunting, wasting, and being underweight. The site-specific incidence rates of asymptomatic ETEC infections per 100 child-months were also higher at the study locations in Tanzania (54.81 [95% CI: 52.64, 57.07]) and Bangladesh (46.75 [95% CI: 44.75, 48.83]). In the Bangladesh, India, and Tanzania sites, the composite indicator of anthropometric failure was significantly associated with asymptomatic ETEC infection. Furthermore, a significant association between asymptomatic heat-stable toxin ETEC infections and childhood stunting, wasting, and being underweight was found in only the Bangladesh and Tanzania sites