The fish and the dish

Abdul Bayes The people of Nishaigonj village under Valuka upazila in Mymensingh are seemingly on a new ladder of livelihoods. During Pakistan era and in independent Bangladesh until the late 1970s, crop farming, especially paddy cultivation, was their main source of livelihood. The reasons are not far to seek. The village was backward in terms of infrastructure and land elevation (low-lying with beels). The people did not have non-farm employment opportunities in and around their locality. Most of the time fish was harvested from the beel areas mainly for home consumption. No good roads, no electricity. Ploughing paddy fields was the only way to put staple rice in their plates. Traditional varieties of paddy such as 'jugli', 'aipsa' and 'boron' were grown that fetched 1-1.5 maunds per katha of land (seven decimals). Obviously, such low yield was not enough to keep them on an even keel. In consequence, acute food shortage developed and many of them had to live on 'fan' or 'bhater mar' (left-over water after rice is cooked) decades back. Meantime, a few interventions from the public and the private sector went to turn a new leaf in their livelihood patterns. During Ershad regime, and possibly by fluke, Nishaigonj was enlisted as an 'adarsha' village (model village). To this effect, embankments were constructed across the large beel area that opened the door for fish culture in a more systematic manner - and mainly for the market. But production of fish could hardly pull them out of poverty in a regime of the lack of opportunities to market fish for urban consumers. Later, as the Mymensingh-Dhaka road developed as well as the per capita income of people in urban areas began to rise, the demand for fish rose pari passu. Second, the advent of modern rice technology, such as BR 28 and 29 with a yield rate of 6-7 maunds per katha, allowed the villagers to set aside some land for fish cultivation. Thus, where two acres of land is required to feed a family of five with rice, now the same amount of food comes from 50 decimals of land. Third, the growth of industries, services (such as transport) and especially, the Mymensingh-Dhaka road emerged as additional boon of income generation to them. The village covers 180 acres of land of which 140 acres are agricultural land but only 10 per cent of land in aman season and 22 per cent in boro season are put to HYV (high-yield variety) rice. The rest is earmarked for fish cultivation of as many as 17-18 types. Everyday 10-15 trucks wait to take fish to different cities of the country. Farmers elsewhere generally grow rice to buy fish but the people of Nishaigonj grow fish to buy rice from the market. The economics of fish cultivation vis-à-vis rice is that, under a few assumptions, paddy from one acre of land produces a net profit of Tk15000-20,000 but that of 'pangash', 'ruhi', etc. generates a hefty five times more revenue than the competing crop rice. If one katha of land is rented out to fish field, the owner gets Tk. 3,500 which is much higher than that from rice production. By and large, food security in the village has tremendously improved over time through increasing entitlements or income. One could imagine the improvements in standard of living by the following information: in 2011, the village had access to electricity and by 2013, almost all households had electricity connections; two decades back 2-3 households per 100 had tin shed; now almost every household has that; 70 per cent of households have colour television sets; 10-15 motor cycles show up every day; there is no house made of straw (schaner ghar), three-fourths of households have access to sanitary latrine; agricultural (crop) wage is Tk.350/day and non-crop wage (such as in fish field) Tk.400/day (Tk.5000-6000/month if employed to guard at night); all school-age children are attending school. The role of traditional money lenders that once dominated the village credit market, seemingly diminished with the advent of NGOs (non-governmental organisations). However, even dependence on NGOs has waned to some extent with rising savings rate in the village. Some villagers are taking on poultry farming as the emerging source of income. As we were told, the surplus so generated is being diverted to various non-farm enterprises. Many are spending a part of the income in giving children a good schooling in nearby kindergarten schools at Valuka and a part diverted for quality food. Apparently, both private and public sector interventions have given Nishaigonj a new lease of life: advent of modern varieties of paddy, construction of embankment and windows of opportunities created by roads and electricity. Two other developments are the growth of garments in the vicinity of the village where women population work, and migration abroad. By and large, fish cultivation has become a way of livelihood for the Nishaigonj village in place of a rice-based livelihood as seen before. It would be very difficult to come back to rice-based livelihood as rice cultivation has become much less profitable compared to fish. Fish has been paying for the dish and the surplus is now being spent for lifting living standard. Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. [email protected]